


Maybe this isn't as fake as we think

by Violet_Witch



Series: Dick and Wally get a room [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Birdflash - Freeform, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, all of this could be solved with one honest conversation, bisexual! Wally, but they can chapter title, gay! Dick, or summarize, the team ships it, this author cannot title
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-01 13:45:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 29,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15144380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violet_Witch/pseuds/Violet_Witch
Summary: "Lex Luthor is hosting a youth retreat for the most well known and influential people in the world; aristocratic teenagers."Batman stood in the debriefing room facing Kid Flash and Robin, "Their parents may be in charge now, but every one of the kids on the guest list have trust funds with enough money to buy a small country at least. More than that, most of them will inherit the technology and companies that will shape the world in half a century. Even now these are some of the most powerful people in the world. They’re the ones who will shape the future, and some of them have already started.”ORThe one where Dick and Wally have to pretend to date and hide their ridiculously obvious crushes at the same time. Meanwhile, the team is wondering where their OTP is and Babs might be a little evil.





	1. You want us to do... what?

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on Wattpad, my username is camo_cat and if you want to come yell at me or discuss Young Justice or ships for that matter, my Tumblr is a-scatterbrained-fangirl.  
> Anyway!  
> I'd like to say upfront that this doesn't really fit any particular timeline. It's just the YJ universe but it doesn't tie into any of the particular events of the series. Also, I aged both boys up so Dick is roughly 18 and Wally is 19.  
> Hmmmm is there anything else?  
> Oh yeah! I'm probably going to repeat this until it gets really annoying, but I live on comments. I love to hear what readers think and what I can improve on and what you liked. (Hopefully all kind!)  
> But you're not here to read me jabbering, so... have fun? Read on? I hope you enjoy?  
> How do you sign off on a note like this????

"Lex Luthor is hosting a youth retreat for the most well known and influential people in the world; aristocratic teenagers."

Batman stood in the debriefing room facing Kid Flash and Robin. "Their parents may be in charge now, but every one of the kids on the guest list have trust funds with enough money to buy a small country at least. More than that, most of them will inherit the technology and companies that will shape the world in half a century. Even now these are some of the most powerful people in the world. They’re the ones who will shape the future, and some of them have already started.”

Kid Flash crossed his arms, wondering what kids with the literal weight of the world on their shoulders were like. Rude? Entitled? On the other hand, the team had the weight of the world on their shoulders and Wally got along with them. More or less.

“It will be a gathering of the most valuable hostages in the world to say the very least, and Lex Luthor is involved so chances are something is going to happen and it's going to be bad." Batman paused to make eye contact with Robin and Kid Flash in turn. The latter gulped. "Naturally we need someone there to gather information and more importantly, stop any plans Luthor may have to endanger or threaten these kids. You two are the only option."

Kid Flash frowned, "Wait, how are _we_ the only option?"

Batman didn’t answer and Kid Flash realized why when Robin sighed, drawing Kid Flash’s attention immediately. "Because," he said, removing his mask, "as Dick Grayson, son of Bruce Wayne, I have an invitation. With a plus one I'm guessing. And you're the only option for that plus one because you already know my secret identity."

For possibly the thousandth time KF was distracted from Dick's words by those crystal blue eyes. But he did catch Batman's answering nod.

"You're exactly correct Robin. However, there are... complications, that I need to point out to you both." Batman's words addressed both of them, but he was definitely looking at Kid Flash. "Besides the obvious threat to your secret identities that comes with using them for a mission, there are a multitude of problems that mostly stem from the fact that it's a couples retreat."

Dick choked on air, the first sign of surprise he’d shown so far. "What?"

"The plus one is exclusively reserved for SO's of the invited kids." Batman confirmed.

"If it’s for couples, wouldn't Babs be more suited to this mission?" Kid Flash asked incredulously.

Batman cocked his head and Dick suddenly seemed to find the floor very interesting. After a very pregnant pause, Batman said, "No. Dick Grayson is very publicly gay. His plus one cannot be a girl."

KF stiffened. How had he not pieced it together? He had heard about a young aristocrat coming out as gay when a homophobic reporter had gotten a little to nosey with the 'When are you going to get a girlfriend?' questions, but KF hadn't looked into it enough to see Dick's name or picture.

For a brief moment, Wally entertained the notion that Dick could have been lying. Being a vigilante didn’t leave a lot of room for dating after all. Saying he was gay might have been a lie to get the reporters off his back about dating someone for a moment.

But he dismissed it immediately. Coming out as gay would have been hard for Dick on a lot of different levels. For starters, it would have brought the media down on him like bats from hell.

Assured that Dick was in fact gay and probably not lying or following some sort of plan, KF took a moment to expand his world view to include a gay Robin. _A gay Robin that would still never be interested in me,_ he thought. All he managed was a small, "Oh."

Batman waited another moment for Kid Flash to process that, while Dick pointedly continued not looking at anyone. Finally he addressed Kid Flash, "Because the retreat is for couples, you would have to deal with the implications of becoming an overnight celebrity as Wally West. Namely, you'd have to tell the world you’re queer and deal with the publicity of dating a celebrity. Including interviews, possibly photo shoots, and of course keeping up the guise while at the retreat. Whatever that necessitates." KF definitely heard something in Batman's voice just then. A sort of angry reluctance. It occured to KF that Batman probably really didn't like the idea of his protege being defiled by a boyfriend, fake or not. Wally might have been terrified if he wasn't still in shock.

"However, all that said, the whole thing would blow over pretty quickly,” Batman continued, “In Gotham they'll probably talk about it for a month at the most and everywhere else will forget about it in a week. The reporters will probably only bother you in the time between Dick RSVPing and the retreat, obviously they won't be allowed at the retreat, and naturally we'll stage your very quiet and private break up directly after the retreat. But because of the nature of this mission and the strain it could put on your life as Wally West and your working relationship as Kid Flash and Robin, this mission is strictly if you both choose to accept. I realize there's a lot to think about and the retreat isn't for a week so I'll give you both the night to think about it. Dismissed."

The boys stood there in shock for another ten seconds before Robin composed himself, put his mask back on, and motioned for KF to leave with him.  
Once they got out of earshot Robin spoke, "So... what do you think?"

KF shifted uncomfortably, "I think, that I need to think about it more. I'll... have an answer to that by tomorrow. What do you think?"

Robin sighed, "Honestly Wally? I don't know. I guess if you’re up for it, of course I'll take the mission because I can't think of a good reason not to. So... I guess it's up to you."

 _Of course there's a- wait what?_ Wally thought. He was shocked that Robin didn't seem to have any objections to this. He'd expected Rob to be disgusted at having to pretend to be in love with him but... KF shook himself to clear his head. _Stop reading so much into it,_ he told himself. _Rob has always been a professional. This is just a mission to him._

Robin clapped him on the back, effectively shaking him out of his thoughts. "I'll see you tomorrow Wally."

Wally hadn't realized they were at the tube already. "Yeah, see you tomorrow."

He found himself surprisingly reluctant to leave, but he did.

***

After a rushed dinner and shower, even by his standards, Wally found himself finally alone with time to think in his room.

Sorting through his thoughts proved... difficult. Sorting through his emotions was like running in a hurricane- _without_ super speed.

Wally took a deep breath. _In. Out. In. Out. Chill it West. One thing at a time._ That in mind, Wally chose to focus on the technicalities first.

Wally was bisexual. He'd known that for a while. He'd realised somewhere between finding out that checking out a guy’s ass was not something that 'everybody does' and falling hard for his very male teammate. He'd come to terms with it pretty easily. He was bi. It was just another word that described him. Fast. Hungry. Handsome. Smart. Kid Flash. Wally West. Bisexual.

It was that easy.

But telling people was another thing altogether. So far he hadn't really had a sufficient reason. He'd only ever dated girls. And it wasn't that he was ashamed of being bi or anything, he just knew that it was a difficult subject to handle and he had to tell people in the right way to avoid... uncomfortable situations.

Maybe this mission was exactly the opportunity he’d been waiting for. It was a reason to say something without it being awkward or out of the blue.

And because he wasn’t out to anyone, it would make sense that none of his friends knew he was dating Dick Grayson.

So the coming out thing wasn't a problem.

Besides, what better way to come out than on the arm of a smoking hot rich guy who was utterly devoted to you. Wally smiled faintly, if they did this, he would make sure Dick played a _very_ devoted boyfriend.

Which brought him to the next point. The press. Batman had been right of course, the press would forget Wally in a week. And frankly, one week of pretending to be dating Dick for reporters and cameras did not sound bad at all. Come to think of it, it actually sounded kind of nice.

In conclusion, Wally had no reason to say no.

Except his feelings.

If he took this mission it would involve hand holding, hugging, dopey in love smiles, and a whole fake story about how they got together. And he might even have to kiss Dick. They were supposed to be teenagers in love after all.

Wally gulped. The thought of that was terrifying.

It wasn't that he didn't want to. He wanted to. God did he want to. Sometimes he wanted to kiss Robin so much it hurt. But... what he was worried about was after the mission. After he'd gotten to be Dick's boyfriend, after he'd kissed Dick, how was Wally supposed to go back to being ‘just friends’. Idly fantasising about something that would never happen was one thing, but actually having it and then it never happening again? Could Wally do that?

 _Who knows, maybe kissing him and being his boyfriend for a week or two will finally shake this three year long crush._ Wally argued with himself. But really, what were the odds of that?

Wally shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. _What am I doing? There's nothing physically holding me back from this mission. I'm protecting a bunch of very powerful kids. That's what this is. It's my duty as Kid Flash to do this. I can't let my feelings for Dick get in the way of a mission._

That decided it. Tomorrow Wally would go tell Batman and Robin that he would do the mission.

As the saying went, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Wally was pretty sure it was about your love dying but it seemed applicable to this situation too.

He drifted off to sleep with that thought, dreams full of crystal blue eyes that always seemed just out of reach.

***

Dick was ashamed and guilty and oh so hopeful.

He was pretty sure he'd never looked forward to a mission more.

He’d been harboring a crush on Wally since... he wasn't even sure. It had happened so slowly and then on a mission about two years ago Wally had been KO'd and Robin had feared the worst. It had to have been less than ten minutes that Dick had feared Wally was dead, but it had been enough to show him that he couldn't live without Wally. He'd known his feelings were deep, but that's when he'd realized they weren't platonic.

So yeah. Dick was hopeful. He was hopeful that Wally would accept the mission and that he'd get to let loose for a week. If he wanted to take Wally's hand, he'd be able to. He'd get to smile lovingly at his... friend... and brush his fiery hair out of his face and maybe even kiss him. For like, two weeks.

Naturally the down side to that was once the mission ended they'd have to go back to being just friends again, but Dick could handle that. He knew he could. He just wanted to have Wally once. Just to feel what it was like. Then he could go back to pretending he wasn't hopelessly in love with his best friend. Dick just needed to feel that once, and he could die a happy man. Which, in his profession, would probably happen sooner rather than later.

And all of that was why he felt ashamed and guilty.

He had to be the most selfish person on the planet to be having these thoughts. It was a mission! If Wally accepted it was only because he was doing his job. He didn't even like guys. All of these thoughts and images in Dick's head were betrayals to his friend. This whole thing felt like Dick taking advantage of Wally.

So, Dick's guilt successfully trampled his hope and he wasn't looking forward to seeing Wally half as much as he usually did.


	2. Our first date?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FLUFF. So much fluff. Like rot your teeth and It's So Fluffy I Want To Die, level fluffy.

"I'll do it."

Batman and Robin turned around to see Kid Flash entering the Cave in civies.

Batman reacted first, "I will RSVP on Dick's invitation. The press with be alerted within the hour, I expect you both to be ready for that. You're both excused from missions for the next two weeks, I'll keep the team busy and provide a cover story so they don’t question your absence."

Robin nodded to Batman and walked over to Wally, clapping him on the back. "I'm glad you're in. Let's go decide how we fell in love." Robin accompanied his words with a mischievous grin that brought color to Wally's cheeks.

Once they'd settled onto opposite couches in the living room Robin began to speak, "Ok first things first. We need to lay some ground rules. How far are we willing to take this?"

Wally swallowed. But if he was going to do this, he might as well go all in. There was no point protecting his heart now. No matter what happened in the next two weeks he was bound to come out of it hurt. So he shrugged as nonchalantly as he could and grinned easily. "Well obviously hand holding. Also, I'm going to put my arm around your shoulder when we're walking together. If that's ok."

Dick, because he was Dick right now, the whole team was off on missions so he was wearing civies with his sunglasses off, returned the smile. "Of course. But if you do that, I'm going to be forced to put my arm around your waist."

Wally was getting it now. They were going to joke about this. Thank God. (And that was saying something since Wally was strictly a man of science. )Joking was one of the things he did best. "Oh well, if we're already going to be standing like that it would be only natural for me to kiss the top of your head."

Wally missed the subtle shiver that went through Dick. "And as a gentlemen I'll be forced to open the door for you and get your chair when we sit down."

"Ah but only if I can kiss your hand."

"And don't forget hugging."

"Wouldn't dream of it. But if we're hugging I'm going to have to smile at you like a dopey idiot every time you're not looking at me." _Like I already do now._

Dick finally broke out laughing. It never occured to Wally that he only did that to hide the blush that was close to forming on his cheeks.

Wally joined in laughing until Dick finally stopped and said, "But seriously. What are we going to do about kissing."

Wally shrugged like the thought didn't bother him in the slightest. "Well cheek kisses are fine with me. And forehead kisses. I don't really think they'll be a situation where we need to really kiss, but if it becomes vital to our cover, I'll do that too."

Dick's adams apple bobbed. "Ok." Before he could get lost in his own head thinking about that, he continued, "Now that we've settled ground rules- basically anything's fine but avoid kissing unless necessary- we should talk about how we met and fell in love."

 _Easy,_ Wally thought, _you were Batman's sidekick and I was Flash's. We ended up on a team together and I fell for you hard because your freaking Boy Wonder and you're talented and smart an amaz-_ "Any ideas?"

Robin nodded. "A few. We're playing this like your friends don't know about me, so we can just say that I was in Central City running errands and you ran into me. People love it when you fall in love with the boy and not the fame, so we'll say that you didn't know who I was. We can say that we talked and we really hit it off, maybe we found a shared interest in superheroes and science, so we exchanged phone numbers and have been on a few dates since."

Dick knew he was hitting pretty close to the truth, they had met in Central City, at their first meeting Wally truly had never heard of Robin, and the whole 'ran into me' part was painfully accurate. Dick was pretty sure he still had a bruise from that. Not to mention the bonded over a love of superheroes part. But the best lies were always based on truth and simple.

"That sounds perfect," Wally said, smiling faintly. Dick was surprised at how genuinely happy and almost wistful Wally seemed.

Before he could dwell on that, Dick's cell rang.

Because it was his everyday cell, he answered, "Dick Grayson speaking."

"Master Dick, Miss Cat Grant just called inquiring after an interview with you and Mister Wally West. What should I tell her?" Alfred asked.

"Tell her we'd love that and set a time. We'll be there," Dick replied.

"Very well Master Dick." Alfred hung up the phone.

"What was that?" Wally asked, having heard every word.

"That," started Dick slowly, "is our first date."

***

"I feel ridiculous in this suit." Wally said for the 3rd time.

"Welcome to my everyday," came the quick reply. "You're not even wearing a tie!"

To be fair, neither was Dick. But they were wearing slacks, dress shirts, and jackets and that was already too much for Wally. Although, Dick did look pretty hot in the crimson suit that matched Wally’s hair perfectly.

"Please welcome to the stage... Dick Grayson and his boyfriend Wally West!" Clapping came from the live audience. Wally had to admit he had not expected a live audience, but naturally it hadn't fazed Dick in the slightest. _Effing Bats and their non reactions…_ Wally had muttered darkly. Dick just snorted.

When Wally didn't move, Dick placed his hand on the small of Wally's back and leaned in close to his ear, "Stay whelmed. If we can do this, we'll have no trouble at the retreat. Just be your normal loveable self and remember; we're in love." Wally went bright red. Did Dick have to keep saying that stuff? It was driving Wally crazy.

Dick pulled away to offer his arm instead which Wally took. Arm in arm they strode out onto the stage.

Dick smiled and waved like a pro but Wally found that without his mask, it was an awful that harder to seem brave in front of cameras. It seemed like an eternity before they reached the guest couch. But they did eventually.

Cat wasted no time in jumping into the interview, "So, Dick, I've had you on this segment a few times. Once with Bruce Wayne when he first adopted you then again concerning your involvement in the Martha Wayne foundation orphanage. Can I just say, It's wonderful to have you back. And with a guest no less!"

Dick laughed easily,"Well I have to say Miss Grant, I'm happy to be back. And I couldn't be more ecstatic concerning the circumstances." He turned to look at Wally with a dopey in-love kind of smile, easily intertwining their fingers. The crowd awed.

But Wally barely heard them. Dick Grayson, as in Robin, as in Boy Wonder, was smiling at him like he’d hung all the stars in the sky. And suddenly Wally wasn't nervous anymore. The tension just seemed to drain out of him. He returned Dick's smile.

After giving the audience time to fawn over the adorable couple Cat truly began the interview, "So Wally, we don't know anything about you! Which seems like a shame really. Can you tell us about yourself? How did you two meet?"

Wally's panic started to return but Dick gave his hand a gentle squeeze and he was calm again. "Well, I live in Central City, I'm a senior there, so I’ll be graduating highschool in May. And this year I got a chem internship at Star Labs that I intend to continue into college.” He paused to look at Dick, smiling fondly. “I met this lovely bird a couple of months ago when he was in town." Dick squeezed his hand sharply at 'bird' but Wally decided it was worth it. "If I'm being honest with you Miss Grant, I didn't know he was a celebrity or anything. I just thought he was a really cute boy outside a coffee shop."

"I'll admit I was travelling sort of incognito at the time," Dick added.

"I mean fate must have been on our side, because I literally ran into him," Wally finished

The audience chuckled.

"So to make it up to him, I bought him a coffee and well, we hit it off. We exchanged phone numbers and the rest is history."

"How sweet!" Cat squealed, "Would you describe it as love at first sight?"

Dick laughed deeply, "Not quite Miss Grant. I just found it refreshing to talk to someone who wasn't worried about who my father was or how much money was in my trust fund. In the beginning we were just friends who both loved superheroes and have an affinity for Sci Fi."

The interview went on with Dick and Wally taking turns answering questions and slipping in as many subtle jabs at their other identities as they could.

Dick was in the zone. This is what he did. He fulfilled a role to complete a mission. But there was something so very different about pretending to by dating Wally. The whole thing felt... more natural than most of the lies Dick told. And it was unimaginably comforting to be able to hold Wally's hand through the whole interview.

Wally couldn't stop the dopey smiles. He thanked God that Dick would think he was acting. Because _Dick Grayson was talking about everything he loved about Wally._

"Cat," it hadn't taken long for her to insist they call her Cat, "I don't even know where to start! There are so many things I love about my boyfriend. I love his laugh and his smile and his corny jokes. I love his brain and how he never stops thinking. I love arguing with him about who's better, Robin or Kid Flash. I just love... all of it."

Wally took a risk at that point and lifted his arm, with their hands still joined, over Dick's head so now Dick was leaning his head against Wally's shoulder and holding Wally's hand which was draped across Dick's shoulders pulling him closer.

"Aw, Birde, you flatter me." Wally said.

The crowd switched between aweing and laughing. The interview went on.

When it was finally over they stood up and hugged Cat, saying their goodbyes.

While the crowd clapped and Cat said a few final words Wally kept his hand on the small of Dick's back and took the opportunity to lean in and whisper in Dick's ear, "Didn't know you'd make such an adorable boyfriend, Birde." It was partially a lie. Everytime Wally had imagined this, it had looked something like that, but he'd always thought that was wishful thinking.

Dick snorted and leaned into Wally muttering, "Shut up."

It was such a Dick thing to do that for a moment, Wally could almost believe Dick wasn't acting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna level with you. This is partially so fluffy because they're about to go to a retreat full of horny teens... Where there is also fluff. But this is the fluffiest part of the story.


	3. Meanwhile, back at the robot ranch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title _might_ be a reference to A Series of Unfortunate Events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this story is basically already written, but the editing process is soul-draining. Seriously. Nevertheless, because it’s mostly done, I should be able to post a chapter more or less every day. I don’t have a specific time of day specified but generally I’ll probably update in the evenings.

"Have you seen Kid Flash?" Even as she spoke, Artemis shot down three more bots.

"I believe he is 'preoccupied'," Kaldur responded, spinning to lash out with his water whip. "As is Robin. Though that is less unusual."

"Doesn't it seem a little weird that we suddenly have a rush of criminal activity and they go off radar at the same time?" Artemis shot an exploding arrow at the 'Queen Bee' of the bots, effectively knocking the rest of the bots out.

Kaldur sheathed his weapons. "Batman doesn't seem concerned."

"Batman's probably covering for them," Artemis muttered.

Kaldur studied her for a long time. Long enough for her to get kind of unnerved. At length he said, "Are you suggesting KF and Robin don't trust us and Batman is encouraging that distrust?"

Artemis shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe. Just thinking out loud. Like, knowing Robin, they could be doing literally anything. I wouldn't put it past them to be stopping an alien invasion or saving the world. Knowing Wally, they could be on a beach in the Caribbean."

"How is that our business?" Kaldur asked with an amused smile.

"Aren't you always telling us we need to trust each other? Not keep secrets? Come on, you can't tell me you're not curious!" Artemis whined.

Kaldur finally gave in. "Maybe they're finally doing something about that sexual tension."

Artemis burst out laughing. "Yeah they’re probably making out in a closet somewhere. All I'm saying is we should keep an eye out and maybe grill them for details later.” She continued more slowly, “Hypothetically, if I were a bat anyway, I would do some snooping."

Smiling in amusement, Kaldur responded, "Hypothetically, I would offer assistance to a fake 'bat' looking to- how did you put it? Snoop."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really incredibly short so I’m going to post two.


	4. Expect the unexpected, but accept the expected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to our boys!

Wally had expected a lot of things from his first dip into high society as Dick Grayson’s boyfriend.

He’d built up an image (he absolutely refused to say fantasy) in his head of Dick in a three piece suit- maybe even a tux- sunglasses glinting as he told a group of attentive aristocrats some joke or another. In this image, everyone was holding a glass of champagne and occasionally glancing either derisively or jealousy at Wally, depending on how anxious he was feeling just then.

It also goes without saying, these unnamed aristocrats were all hot. Very hot and elegant, dressed in black tie.

This picture was 70% based on TV galas, (The other 30% was based on what Dick had told him about real galas.) so in all reality, Wally didn’t really know what to expect. He was honestly a little scared to ask Dick and he hadn’t even gotten to pack his own bag. When he’d asked what to pack, Dick had waved dismissively and told him Alfred would handle it and that was it.

So Wally tried really, very hard not to worry about what he couldn’t change or control. It really didn’t help that he was a hero who wasn’t allowed to go out and beat up bad guys, but Batman said it was too much of a risk that he’d get hurt and have to explain his injuries to everyone. There was the track at Star Labs of course, and that helped a lot, but it just wasn’t the same. At least when he was running on the track he could stop thinking. It _was_ amazingly calming.

So through some miracle of running around in circles, eating a lot, talking to Dick, and sleeping, Wally managed to survive the week of waiting.

Which brought him to Wayne manor. Where Alfred handed him a neatly folded pile of clothes and instructed him to go change because Master Dick would be down any minute.

Wally had done as instructed and been absolutely shocked to find himself wearing not a tux, but khakis and a polo. That was the beginning of finding out how very wrong he had been about everything.

When Wally got out of the bathroom, Dick was tapping away at his phone. Wally wondered idly what he was doing, but he didn’t have any good guesses. Knowing Dick, it could be anything from solving a case and stopping a crime boss, to updating his twitter.

The phone was not what caught Wally’s eye though. Dick was wearing a button up and black skinny jeans that hugged his legs _just right._ They hugged something else too, but Wally was trying _really_ hard not to think about that. _That_ was the last thing he needed right now.

After a moment of staring that would have been very awkward if he’d been caught, Dick finally glanced up and noticed him.

“Hey Walls. I see Alfred got to you first. Ready to go?” He smiled warmly and Wally tried not to stare.

“Yeah. Let’s go eat fancy fish and charm spoiled teenagers,” Wally joked.

Dick laughed. “Don’t knock it till you try it. Some of the fish are actually ok.”

Wally smiled and suddenly it wasn’t so awkward. Dick had always been really good at putting him at ease in what should have been awkward or tense situations. He’d have to keep an eye on that.

A remarkably quick and uneventful helicopter ride later, and Wally was back to discovering all the ways he had been very wrong and very unprepared.

For starters, to go along with his shockingly casual outfit, Dick left out his sunglasses, leaving his crystal eyes uncovered for Wally to pointedly avoid ogling. Secondly, everyone else dressed casually as well. A quick glance around turned up a lot of guys dressed similarly to himself and Dick, as well as girls in sundresses and jumpers. Then there was the fact that no one there was above drinking age so there wasn’t any champagne.

After a few moments of walking around aimlessly while Dick occasionally whispered little stories or facts about certain attendees, Wally decided upon one simple fact. When you took out the overbearing parents and the weight of the world futures, even socialites with trust funds the size of Europe were really just teenagers. They laughed and joked and greeted their friends happily. Nobody seemed to be faking it. Nobody seemed to be making business deals or just being generally sketchy, they were just… kids.

It was unexpected, but not unwelcome.

“Shit.” Dick’s quiet curse broke Wally out of his musings. “We should move. Now.”

Dick grabbed Wally’s hand and started to pull-

“Dick!” A girls voice cried out, stopping Dick in his tracks.

Screwing his eyes shut tight, he muttered another curse before turning slowly. By the time he was facing the girl, he was smiling again. “Hey Kizzy.”

“Don’t be a stranger, come here!” Kizzy squealed, her golden eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she walked over to them.

To Wally’s mild surprise, (it would have been full on shock, but at this point, Wally half expected Dick to do a triple backflip and land on the buffet table) Dick laughed and leaned down a bit to scoop Kizzy into an impressive bear hug, literally sweeping her off her feet and spinning her around a few times, making her skirt swirl in mesmerizing patterns, before setting her down and taking a step back. “How have you been?” he asked.

Kizzy rolled her eyes, fluffy brown curls still bouncing. “How have _I_ been? You’re the one who hasn’t been out in like, forever. I never thought Bruce would be the type of dad to keep his son locked up, but if you weren’t so good at texting, I’d’ve thought you’d died!” Her southern belle accent made the words slide like honey.

Dick looked sheepish. _Sheepish._ Wally hadn’t even known Dick _could_ make that expression for anyone other than Alfred. “Sorry Kiz, I’ve just been really busy. When was the last time I saw you in person? Channer’s New Years party?”

Kizzy nodded. “That was the last time that counted yes.” With a conspiratorial smile, she leaned toward Wally. “Between you and me, Dick’s a winter and he looks lovely in one of Mary’s cocktail dresses.”

Wally threw his head back and laughed. Cocktail dress? Damn, he was missing out.

As if reading his thoughts, Kizzy started to pull her phone out. “I actually have a picture if you’d like to-?”

“NO!” Dick cut her off frantically. He looked straight up panicked.

Kizzy laughed softly, tucking her phone away. “Ok fine. I won’t show the picture, but I ain’t deletin’ it either.”

“I expected nothing less.” Dick smiled softly, his blush just starting to fade. “So, are you here with someone?”

For the first time, Kizzy seemed to hesitate. “You haven’t been keeping up with the news then?”

Dick frowned. “I thought I had. Did I miss something?”

“Well… ” Kizzy looked away as if searching for her answer among the other guests.

She didn’t actually get a chance to answer though, because just then a new girl sidled up behind Kizzy, slipping her arms around Kizzy’s waist to hug her from behind. “Mark’s still a total ass and I can’t believe you abandoned me.”

Kiz nearly jumped when the girl appeared, but seemed to melt into her touch as if the girl were an extension of herself, leaning into her and overlapping their hands. “Sorry Liv. I saw Dick and I might have gotten a bit… excited.”

Liv laughed, nuzzling her nose into her (girlfriend’s?) hair. “All is forgiven. As long as you go swimming with me later.”

Kiz turned the color of the Flash's costume, finally returning her attention to Dick whose eyebrows looked like they were in threat of climbing right off his face. “Uh, yeah. You could say I’m here with someone. Oliva Mayfield meet Dick Grayson. Dick, Liv.”

Liv straightened and offered her hand with a bashful smile. “I’m sorry. I assumed Kiz already mentioned me. Or, you saw the papers. It’s nice to finally meet Gotham’s prince. Kiz speaks highly of you.”

Dick shook her hand with a wide grin. “The pleasures all mine. When did you two- ?”

“Richard Grayson, you haven’t even introduced me to your guest,” Kiz suddenly interjected, looking straight up disappointed.

Dick started guiltily, turning to Wally like he’d almost forgotten he was there. To be fair, Wally had kind of forgotten he was there too. He’d let himself fall into observation mode, watching the proceedings like a particularly interesting TV drama. “This is my boyfriend, Wally West,” just hearing Dick say those words- and so easily too, as if they were totally normal- made Wally feel giddy. “Wally, this is Kizzy Cambelle and her girlfriend Olivia Mayfield.”

Wally was so busy smiling at Dick, he almost forgot to extend his hand. For the record though, he did remember in time for it to not be awkward. “Hi. It’s great to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Kizzy returned, shaking his hand firmly.

Liv merely smiled, but her hand shake was just as firm.

For a moment everyone smiled. Dick smiled at Wally, Wally smiled at the girls, Liv smiled at the boys, Kizzy’s eyes darted scrutinizingly between the boys.

After a moment Kizzy said, “We don’t mind Dick.”

Dick frowned. “Don’t mind what?”

Rolling her eyes, Kiz swatted Dick’s arm lightly. “PDA, dummie. I remember how you were with Mark. You don’t have to be shy, you’re in good company here.”

_Mark?_ Wally felt a painful something settle in his stomach. Rationally, he knew that was an unfair reaction, but he considered himself Dick's best friend and he'd never even _heard_ the name Mark. He didn't dwell on it though, instead he just laughed good naturedly and slipped an arm around Dick’s waist, pulling the shorter into his side. “You been holding out on me birdie?”

Dick rolled his eyes, leaning into Wally. “Right. Because you totally want to hear stories about my exes.”

Wally screwed up his face for a moment as if in thought. “Yeah, actually. That sounds hilarious and embarrassing.”

“We could get into your exes and the amount of pining you did for them before we got together,” Dick offered.

Wally shuddered. “On second thought, no. You’re right, as always. Lets avoid exes.”

Somewhere in the back of his head, he noted that it was probably bad that someone had already called them out on not acting like a couple, but Kizzy was smiling contentedly at them now, so, crisis averted.

“You know, after Lex gives his usual boring speech about changing the world and sticking together, everyone’s going to head down to the pool. Obviously you’re both coming, but you should hang out with us when we get there,” Kizzy offered.

“‘Course Kiz,” Dick acquiesced graciously.

Kiz twirled on her heel, leading Liv away and calling over her shoulder, “You better!”

Wally waited a beat, savoring Dick’s soft smile as he watched the girls walk away, before saying, “They were nice. Why did you looked so scared when she first called out?”

Dick glanced at him distractedly. “I was _not_ scared.” he argued. “I was panicked. There is an important difference. And I was panicked because Kiz can be… a bit much. I was hoping to start you out with someone… more subtle.”

“Nah. She was wonderful. I think I’m going to team up with her to embarrass you as much as possible.”

Dick hid his face in Wally’s shirt, his voice coming out muffled. “I’m going to regret you two meating, aren’t I?”

“Yup,” Wally promised, popping the p. He gave himself a moment to soak everything in before continuing, “But I’ve never known you to not know something like that. Did you really miss… whatever papers they were talking about?”

Dick sighed, his joking manner slipping away. “Of course not. ‘Southern Heiress Comes Out of the Closet, Shocking Locals and Her Own Family’. They were hard to miss, particularly when Kizzy’s my friend so I keep an eye on her. I just wanted to give Kiz the chance to introduce me to her girlfriend for the first time without worrying about preconceptions.” He frowned, continuing, “Considering I came out first and she was totally supportive, I don’t know why she would worry about me having read the article, but people were considerably less kind about it where she’s from so I wanted to make it easier for her.”

Wally squeezed Dick gently. “That was a good idea. I’ve got to say, mad respect for her to come here with her girlfriend and be so open. That girl has got to be made of something tough.”

“Yeah,” Dick got that soft smile again, “Kizzy’s one of the best people I know.”

And that was the end of that conversation. They set off into the crowd together. And maybe they both noticed Wally’s arm was still around Dick, or how close they were, or how Dick could feel Wally’s heartbeat through his shirt, but neither of them did anything about it.

Wally could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Kizzy. Everyone at the retreat is an OC, but I just reallllllly love Kizzy and I’m so happy to introduce her. I think I have a thing for writing about short fiery girls who are iron-willed and don’t take shit from anyone, but love fiercely.  
> Also, it was really subtle, but did anyone catch the OHC reference?


	5. LEX LUTHOR enter stage RIGHT

The whole opening reception was a blur.

Greet this “old friend”, smile at that one, pretend Dick didn’t know top secret information about the questionable legality of their parents. Some of them, anyway.(a lot of them)

Admittedly, a few of them, like Kizzy, came from more or less upstanding families. Although it pained Dick that Kizzy’s homophobic parents were such upstanding citizens. He would have enjoyed the chance to bash their bigoted faces in as Robin.

The point was, for once he wasn’t here to gather information, at least not from these kids. So he went into auto pilot. Pleasant smiles, compulsory introductions, firm handshakes, the very rare hug, but at any point in time, at least 90% of Dick’s attention was focused on Wally.

Wally, who had never been among socialites. Wally who had never had a real boyfriend and, Dick reminded himself almost painfully, still didn’t. He had ex girlfriends to base his relationship acting skills on, but still.

Dick clocked every reaction Wally gave. Every smile, every nervous laugh or fidget, every time Wally dragged Dick closer by the waist or threw his head back laughing.

It all added up to paint the picture everyone was expecting to see and that made him cautious. 

Wally played the part of regular-kid-who-got-dragged-into-high-society-and-didn’t-know-how-to-feel-or-act-but-was-there-with-someone-he-adored-and-more-importantly-trusted, perfectly. Wally was somehow keeping a near perfect cover and that was what made Dick wary. 

Dick lov- respected Wally, but he wasn’t exactly a covert mission kind of guy. Like, the guy never lied, but when he did, it was a mess. How could Wally play this role so well??

It was starting to make Dick squirm.

Still… it was nice. The entire time Wally was pressed up against his side, one arm tossed easily over Dick’s shoulders, fingers loosely gripping Dick’s own.

And that was _distracting._

Still, Dick played along, leaning in and smiling fondly. But that was the problem, wasn’t it? Dick wasn’t playing at all. _This_ was what felt natural.

So Dick let himself relax. In a rare moment of negligence, he allowed himself to dismiss his unease about Wally’s acting abilities and instead enjoy himself. 

And that’s what he was doing when a voice cut across his conversation, calling out, “Welcome! Ladies and gentlemen, to Lexcorp’s youth retreat.” Lex Luthor smiled magnanimously down at his guests. “I’m sure you’ve all reacquainted yourselves with each other and gotten introductions out of the way, in which case we can skip the team building activities… ”

A light chuckle rippled through the room.

“In any case, I am honored to have you all here and even more so to have your attention. We here at Lexcorp want nothing more than to see you all have a carefree and relaxed week, but before that week begins, I’d like to take this chance to remind you all of the world you will return to shortly. The world that has not seen the Light. The world that has been groping in the dark for a chance at a better future. Call me foolish, but I believe you all _are_ that brighter future. You are the generation that will inherit this world, and with it, it’s problems. Now I know as well as any of you how heavy thoughts like that can weigh on a young mind, so perhaps that’s why I invited you all here.”

A wave of half laughter.

“But nevertheless, you must push through. Clean energy, world peace, cures for diseases slowly decimating our population and for diseases we haven’t even heard of yet, and yes, as much as it may pain me, space exploration. These are the advancements we can only hope you will make once you’ve reached your potential and no one believes in those ideals more so than I. So call this retreat my gift to our world’s future. And me, humbly requesting you all remember that Lexcorp shares these goals and ideas for the future and believes in you. If you ever need help or guidance, we’ll be here. I’ll, be here.” Lex paused for effect, looking around in a way that made everyone in the room feel like they were being addressed directly. “Now, I’m sure you get enough of boring speeches everywhere else, so that’s enough for today. Go! Have fun.”

The socialites cheered. Lex laughed good naturedly at their whoops and hollers, turning to exit the way he came in, leaving the attendees to politely usher everyone towards their rooms. 

“That was quite a speech,” Wally mumbled in Dick’s ear. 

Dick repressed the shiver that raced up his spine. “Lex has always been good at those.”

“Did you get anything from it?”

“Influence. It sounds like Lex wants power over the next generation of CEOs and world leaders. Makes sense. Some of the things he was saying could be precursors to future manipulation.” He sighed heavily, a mischievous smile spreading slowly on his face. “But he’s got another thing coming. All these teens have CFOs, executives, siblings, and a thousand other people trying to influence them all the time. They know a load of crap like Lex’s when they see it.”

“So we don’t really have to worry about that then?” Wally clarified.

Dick snorted. “We might, but not right now. Either way, he didn’t indicate he was going to pull anything. Doesn’t mean we’re safe, but I think we won’t have to worry about the pool party we’re about to attend.”

Wally groaned.

“May I help you find your room, sirs?” An attendant seemed to pop up out of nowhere and it took all of Dick’s Bat training not to startle. Wally was not so lucky or well trained and practically jumped out of his skin.

“Jesus! Usually only you sneak up on me like that,” Wally muttered to Dick.

Dick chuckled, but addressed the attendant in favor of responding to Wally. “That would be very helpful. We should have a room for two under the name Wayne?”

The attendant, her name tag read Lyn, was a woman in her mid twenties with raven hair that fell in a straight plait down her back. Her smile suggested years of customer service and a very false cheeriness. Her body language was tense and Dick read wariness there. He theorized that Lyn was probably waiting to see if they were going to be stereotypical snobby rich kids.

Dick decided that was only fair.

“Right this way.” Lyn smiled dazzlingly and started off, following the general flow of teenagers lead by different attendees. All wearing black pants and collared shirts with the lexcorp logo, Dick noticed.

With a single amused glance passed between them, Dick and Wally followed.

It wasn’t a long walk, making it even easier than anticipated for Dick to memorize the floor plan, possible exits, and air vents. In two minutes, give or take, Lyn was swiping a suspiciously hotel looking key card in front of a door and stepping aside to let them in. 

“If you need anything, let anyone on staff know. We are here to help.” Lyn handed Dick the key she’d used and took Dick’s nod of thanks as permission to leave.

Looking back at the open door Dick gestured airily and said, “Shall we?”

Wally snorted, walking past Dick. They entered into a spacious living room type area with a flat screen TV and a couch. A hallway led off to a kitchenette and another led to a bedroom, which had two doors leading off that Dick reasoned were probably a bathroom and a closet. Their bags were sitting in by the door of the bedroom.

“Well… ” Dick started slowly. “I guess we should get changed and head to the pool.” he cocked his head to the side. “Although, Dick Grayson does have a penchant for being fashionably late, so there’s no need to rush.”

“And Wally West is uncomfortable with you referring to yourself in the third person,” Wally said flopping onto the King sized bed.

The… King sized… bed. Singular. Oh. Oh shit. Dick purposefully turned away, pretending to examine a set of drawers to hide his blush. 

Should he… should he point out this minor snag to Wally?

Nah. Wally would realize eventually.

Dick’s blush returned to normal just in time for Wally to wonder aloud, “Should we like, compare notes? Or talk about strategies to-?”

Dick crossed the room silently and quickly like any good Bat, crawling onto Wally to cover his mouth before he could finish that sentence.

Wally reflexively grabbed Dick’s hips to stabilize him, eyes widening in shock at the sudden heavy weight straddling his hips. 

Dick just frowned down at him. Sure, Wally wasn’t a Bat and he was new to undercover work, but really? That was sloppy. 

He brought his free hand to his own mouth, pressing a finger to his lips in a sh motion. Wally nodded slowly in understanding and Dick removed his hand.

He leaned down to speak directly into Wally’s ear and whispered, “The walls have ears. Give me a second.”

He thought he felt Wally shiver beneath him, but he probably imagined it. He sat back up scrutinizing the room once again, accidently wiggling against Wally a little as he did so. He chose to ignore that and clamoured off the bed- and Wally- with half his usual grace.

Wally laid perfectly still, mostly in shock, watching as his fake boyfriend methodically combed the room for bugs. 

So… that happened. He’d been close with Dick before, obviously, but Dick had literally been on top of him. Wally became abruptly aware that if Dick turned around right then, he would be very aware of how Wally felt about the situation. Wally sat up, casually leaning against the headboard and hugging a pillow in front of him.

After a few moments in which Dick scoured the whole suite, he came back holding three tiny blinking devices. Wally flinched away like they were bombs, but Dick just rolled his eyes and carefully set the bugs down on the comforter. 

Wally watched with interest as Dick retrieved his suitcase and opened it, removing a laptop. Dick hummed as he typed. Rather loudly. It took him a moment to realize Dick was humming to help cover the sound of his typing. 

After a few more moments Dick smiled in satisfaction and said, “We can talk now.”

“Yay,” Wally replied sarcastically. 

He snorted in response. “We do need to figure out how to cover it up though. Between you abruptly cutting off and the squeaking of the bed, whoever’s listening right now will probably assume we’re making out.”

Wally blushed and squeezed his pillow a little tighter, but Dick didn’t bother to look up from his computer. “But after that… Lex’ll get suspicious if the bug just has silence. We can run TV background noise… I could use the soundbites I’ve collected from both of us to run a chatter program… enough to keep the listener off our case. It won’t hold up under a fine tooth comb though… ” Wally smiled dopily at Dick who had deteriorated into mostly talking to himself at this point.

“Of course,” Dick exclaimed smiling triumphantly. “I’ll have Babs run the program to purposely pick out the soundbites that make sense. With her skills and time, she’ll be able to run this program way more effectively. I’ll just send her the info… ”

A few more moments of typing and Dick put his laptop over to the side. “Babs has got it covered. I’ll put these back now.” 

Dick stood abruptly, taking the bugs and rushing around the suite to replace them.

“Ok, now that that’s taken care of, are you ready to go to a pool party?” Dick asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry. Dick is going to realize. Just give him 10 minutes or so...


	6. Regrets, Pools, and Exs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introducing my second favorite OC!!! Even though he barely has a speaking part and is only in this chapter… maybe Liv is my second favorite OC? Meh. What’s important is that Kizzy’s awesome.

It took 10 minutes for Dick to realize, and thank Bat-training for that, because it meant that Wally was in the shower when it hit him.

He’d been sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone and wondering idly why Wally had insisted on taking a shower even though they’d just gotten there and they were about to go swimming, when it occurred to him exactly what he had just done.

At the time he hadn’t been thinking about it. All he’d been thinking about was shutting Wally up as quickly as possible and the quickest way to Wally from where he’d been standing at the foot of the bed, had been vaulting onto the bed and scrambling up Wally’s legs to cover his mouth. And now that Dick thought about it, that had probably been weird. God, he couldn’t even really remember what it had felt like because he’d been in Bat mode.

Not that he was complaining. It probably would have been far worse if he’d been more aware. Still, he wasn’t sure if he’d crossed a line or something. He’d probably weirded Wally out. Maybe that was why Wally had practically run from the room to take a shower he shouldn’t need. To get away from Dick.

Well, damn. What could he do now? He wasn’t about to _talk_ about it. The best thing would probably be to forget it and move on. Yup. That’s what he was gonna do.

Somewhere in the midst of his musings, Dick had finished unpacking and changed into black swim trunks and a loose blue tank. He was debating if he should unpack Wally’s things too (He decided hard no. That felt like an invasion of privacy.) when Wally stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but yellow swim trunks.

Wally paused in the doorway, an odd show of hesitancy from the ginger, but he shook it off quickly enough smiling at Dick. “I see you finished unpacking.”

Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Dick noted that there was no steam coming from the bathroom, meaning Wally must have taken a cold shower, but Wally was standing half naked in front of him with his hair still slightly damp and that was _distracting._ A lot of things about Wally were distracting.

“Yeah had to do something while I waited.” Dick was pretty proud of his level voice and keeping his ogling of Wally’s very bare chest to a minimum.

Wally smirked. “You said it’s safe to talk in here right? So can I use my speed?”

Dick hesitated, mulling over the question. “Not really… ” he said slowly, “If Lex scans, it would be easy for him to pick up on the speed force.”

”Shame. Would have made this easier.” Before Dick could ask what ‘this’ was, Wally shook his head, sending water droplets spraying everywhere. Dick snorted at the resemblance to wolf after a swim. Or Superboy.

He walked over to his suitcase, picking out a red tank and pulling it on. “Let’s go then.”

They left the room together, following the obvious trickle of people towards the pool area. When they got there Dick scanned the pool area once and somehow managed to locate Kizzy. 

After a moment’s hesitation, he reached over to casually grab Wally’s hand. Hopefully that was ok after the whole bed fiasco thing. Whatever, he didn’t wait around to find out. 

Dick tugged Wally through the small crowd to where Kizzy and Liv were giggling to each other in the midst of a group of teens all on lounge chairs.

Kizzy noticed them first, looking up to call, “Hey guys!”

The whole group seemed to momentarily swivel to inspect the newcomers. A few of them raised a hand in greeting or called something to Dick, but on the whole the group turned back to their conversations.

“What took you guys so long?” Liv asked.

Kizzy wrinkled her nose. “Don’t answer that. I don’t really feel like hearing about Dick’s painfully active sex life at the moment.”

Wally threw his head back laughing and Dick blushed, muttering something that sounded like, “We weren’t _doing_ anything… ”

Before the conversation could really get going though, a boy Wally only vaguely remembered Dick pointing out as Noah asked, “Hey Dick, are the two of you up for a round of chicken? Mark’s talking a lot of shit and because god abandoned this timeline, I’m his designated backup.”

Dick laughed, reminding Wally curiously of a dog’s bark and a child’s excited yelp at the same time. “What? Mark not able to rile anyone up enough to fight him?”

Noah shrugged. “I think his next move is challenging the girls and I have a feeling we’ve got a better chance against you than Kiz and Liv so… ”

Wally laughed, smoothly inserting himself into the conversation. “Fair enough.” He looked at Dick for confirmation, which he got in the form of a shrug. “Let’s do it.”

Something about the name Mark tickled at Wally’s memory, but he didn’t have time to linger over it when Dick casually stood up from his perch at the end of Kizzy’s chair to tug off his shirt. Wally reminded himself sharply that he shouldn’t stare, but then he remembered he was technically Dick’s ‘boyfriend’ right now and he let himself take in the smooth skin only occasionally marked by scars, that rippled over lean muscles. 

Dick finally finished pulling off his shirt after what felt like an awfully long time, but then again, it might have been a speedster thing, and noticed Wally’s staring. He smirked in a way that was definitely smug and Wally remembered that he was about to go swimming too.

He stood none to gracefully, but at least he stayed at human speeds, and pulled off his shirt. Noah and Mark stepped forward, giving Wally his first good look at them. Noah was handsome in the way Wally had always expected rich kids to be handsome. He was tall with broad shoulders and while his muscles weren’t defined like Dick’s, he looked strong enough and his sharp features certainly spoke of wealth.

Mark, on the other hand, was built like a runner, which Wally could definitely appreciate, with lean muscles and pale skin. He was a little taller than Wally, but not by much, with red hair and brown eyes. “You’re goin down D!” he said slapping hands with Dick and pulling him into a bro hug, slapping his back painfully hard.

“Ha, in your dreams! Walls and I won’t go down easy,” Dick responded smiling.

“Oh like when we played mario cart?”

“Low blow man! I was winning for most of the game anyway. How about when we played beer pong? I remember destroying you.”

“I find that offensive. I was way more drunk than you and I blame the alcohol.”

Noah sighed heavily, somehow not heavily enough to gain Dick or Mark’s attention, but enough to gain Wally’s.

“Are they… ” Wally gestured vaguely to the two arguing teens who were inching suspiciously closer, “always like this?”

Noah stepped closer to stand next to Wally as they watched the two. “Yeah pretty much. I’ve never known anyone able to engage Dick like Mark and no one but Dick has ever been able to actively compete with Mark and enjoy it. Ally tried to put money down that their sex was in the top 10 sports being considered for the Olympics, but no one wanted to bet against her. You can still kind of see the sexual tension even though they broke up months ago. I’d be pissed as Mark’s current hook up, but to be fair, that’s all we really are. Besides, that would be kinda hot.”

Wally’s mouth fell open. So that was why the name Mark sounded familiar. Mark was Dick’s ex. 

Something very uncomfortable squirmed in Wally’s gut. Naturally he knew he had no right to be jealous. He was only faking being Dick’s boyfriend. He had no claim on him and even if he did he shouldn’t have been mad about this. 

And he wasn’t mad, but he was definitely jealous. Had Dick really… ? 

Wally considered himself Dick’s best friend and not only did he not know about Mark, Dick might not have told him about his first time. Wally wasn’t sure what bothered him more, that he hadn’t known or that it hadn’t been him. He immediately shoved that thought as far down in his gut as possible for examination later. Or never. Never sounded good. 

“Sorry, I didn’t actually catch your name,” Noah said, breaking Wally out of his thoughts.

Wally flattened out his face into a neutral expression. “Name’s Wally. I’m Dick’s boyfriend.”

Noah at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “Oh. I hadn’t realized Dick was… I should have realized. Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have said that. Maybe we should… just play already.”

Noah looked away awkwardly to smack Mark’s arm. “Hey are we ever gonna actually play or…?”

Mark smiled cockily. “Sure thing.”

Dick walked closer like he was going to fall into step beside Wally and like anyone would do, Wally panicked and started running (at human speeds) to cannonball into the pool with a sharp and hopefully not forced sounding laugh. 

He took a moment to let the water clear his head before popping back up with whoop and pushing back his bangs to see the others jumping in similarly. 

Mark got in one, “My splash was totally bigger.” before Noah hit him upside the head and effectively shut him up. He still looked smug though.

Dick swam over to Wally and popped out like a fricken movie star. (Seriously, between Wally’s speed slowing the move down and the angle, it looked like the slow motion shots they put in movies where people came up gasping for air, their muscles impossibly defined and their hair perfect.)

His devil may care smile was already in place. “You ready Walls? I don’t plan on losing to this idiot.”

“This idiot being your ex?” Wally said before he could stop himself.

“What?” Dick said in confusion.

“Nothing.”

Just then Noah came over with Mark already on his shoulders. 

Wally quickly stepped behind Dick before he could say anything else, going underwater and nudging his head between Dick’s legs so he could stand back up with Dick firmly on his shoulders. Or, that was the plan. 

Dick must have been even more off his game than Wally realized because he teetered in a very unacrobatic way on his perch. Wally held onto his knees though, keeping the gymnast stable while he righted himself.

The whole fight was a bit of a blur. Wally was mostly caught staring at Noah’s impressively bored face while Mark and Dick wrestled and quipped. Wally was overly aware of Dick’s legs on his shoulders, wrapped around his neck, but it was easier to ignore than expected.

Eventually Dick twisted his waist, gently nudging Wally to turn with him. Trusting his partner, Wally did so, giving Dick the leverage necessary to drag Mark to the side, overbalancing Noah and toppling them both.

Dick raised his hands over his head, whooping in celebration. Wally joined in, finally taking his hands off Dicks legs to spread them in victory, smiling like a madman even if something was still tugging in his gut.

Wally fell backward, landing both him and Dick in the water on their backs. 

In a moment they’d popped back up again and frankly, Dick looked so excited Wally couldn’t help but to get excited himself. He bent down slightly to scoop Dick up in a celebratory hug. 

The moment was great and a bit familiar from some of their more exciting missions, but this time when Wally let Dick down he noticed how very close their faces were and how Dick’s arms had naturally wrapped around his neck while his had wrapped around Dick’s waist.

Wally cleared his throat forcefully, but he couldn’t make his arms move. “That was fun.”

“Yeah,” Dick’s voice cracked.

“Yo, you guys up for round 2 before you start sucking face?” Mark cut in.

Wally practically jumped away from Dick, missing Dick’s disappointment in his own embarrassment. 

They ended up playing a convoluted version of marco polo with a lot more cheating and wrestling. Naturally Dick won, but Wally was shocked at how good Mark was at it. Which only made his gut twist more.

Eventually even Mark’s energy started to run low and they retreated to the poolside.

Wally flopped thankfully into a chair next to Kizzy, Dick on his other side and, much to Wally’s annoyance, Mark on Dick’s otherside. The exes immediately struck up an animated conversation that took all of their attention.

“Have fun out there?” Kiz asked lazily. At some point, Liv had given up on the whole separate chairs thing and was now draped across her girlfriend, cuddling adorably into her side, looking fast asleep or pretty close to it.

Wally plastered on a smile and nodded. “Yeah. We won, obviously.”

Kizzy wasn’t buying it for a second and she didn’t pretend to. She just stared at Wally like she could see his soul, until his smile slipped and… maybe she could. There was something distinctly empathetic in her gaze.

“I’m sorry Wally. That was probably a shitty way to meet Dick’s ex.”

Whatever pitiful smile that had been left on Wally’s face, fell away. “Is it that obvious?”

Kizzy looked like she wished she could reach out to touch him, but her arms were currently wrapped up in her girlfriend, so Wally didn’t blame her for deciding not to. “I couldn’t help but noticed you guys weren’t… oh God I suck at having this conversation.” She sucked in a breath. “What I’m trying to say is, it’s ok if you’re relationship with Dick isn’t as physical as he was with Mark-”

“Woah, Kiz, slow down!” Wally cut her off. “I- I mean yeah, I know me and Dick aren’t like that exactly… but,” but what? He and Dick weren’t ‘like that’ because they _weren’t even dating._ But Kiz didn’t know that.

She nodded sympathetically anyway despite her dubious expression. “Ok Wally. Just remember Dick’s here with you and not Mark.”

A horrible thought occured to Wally. Dick was here with him because of a mission, did Dick _wish_ he were here with Mark?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst, self-doubt, anxiety... hello my old friends. My other friend Wally needs to borrow you for a bit. Don't worry, in the next chapter Dick is going to try you on for size. You really get around don't you?


	7. To tell the truth

Dick had known Wally half his life. It often felt even longer, so he was pretty sure that he was right in saying: Wally was moping.

Not to dis Wally, he put up a pretty good front. Laughs, smiles, jokes- he went the whole nine yards, but it was the way his smile fell when he thought no one was looking and never quite reached his eyes in the first place that gave him away. And then there was the fact that Wally couldn’t even look at Mark.

Which was of course, how Dick realized Wally had probably noticed. 

Dick definitely wasn’t feeling the aster.

He hadn’t even thought to worry about his ex. Mark tended to stick out, yeah, but they generally ran with different crowds and Dick had kind of hoped Mark would stay away. He still wasn’t sure why Mark hadn’t.

As it was, Dick had started talking to Mark and it had all just come back. How well they clicked, how fun it was to push himself and banter without a history, years of sorrow, or the fate of the world in the way, to be a goddamn teenager and… and to forget a different red head. 

That was the heart of it wasn’t it? Mark had been a distraction in so many ways. A distraction so no one questioned him being a playboy’s son. A distraction from Dick’s crush on his actual best friend. A distraction from the fate of the world that had been on Dick’s shoulders since he first put on the Robin costume.

They hadn’t been at the pool that long, maybe a couple hours, when Dick detached from Mark (With great difficulty and, to Dick’s dismay, a promise to play chicken again later.) and pulled Wally aside. It spoke volumes that Wally’s brow furrowed in irritation before smoothing out again.

“We can probably leave now. I don’t usually stick around anywhere too often, so nobody would think twice about it.”

Wally nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

The walk back was silent and conspicuously lacking in any form of touch. Mentally, Dick tried to prepare to say something. Anything. But he was coming up empty handed. His mind was just too cluttered. He needed a minute to focus, meditate, breath- something.

When they finally got back, Dick had barely closed the door when Wally asked, “Do you want the shower first?”

Dick blinked, acknowledging the evasion mutely, then quickly, “Yeah. Thanks man.”

And that was it. Wally nodded a few times and busied himself with something in his suitcase while Dick grabbed his stuff and entered the bathroom. Not like he had more important things to do or anything.

Over the course of his Bat training, Dick had learned how to deal with frustration. It was part of the package. He’d had to learn how to do things like clearing his mind, focusing, resisting telepaths, shoving emotions so deep down even Batman would never find them- not that that part was hard considering Batman had the emotional range of a teaspoon- and dealing with frustration. Normal mental balancing skills. 

He tried to use a few of those now, in the safety of the bathroom, to detach himself from the situation enough to figure out what was going on and what he could do about it.

Using a few breathing techniques and some scalding hot water, Dick managed to clamp down his anxiety. Once that was done, he tried to think about this rationally- like a detective. 

Why was Wally upset? Because he met Dick’s ex. Except, Wally and him weren’t actually dating so why would Dick’s ex be a problem? Maybe Wally felt like Dick had lied to him. Hadn’t he though? Had Dick been lying by omission about… everything? Was he becoming like-

Dick shook his head hard as if to dislodge that thought. He loved his adoptive father and he knew Bruce did his best, but Dick couldn’t stand the thought of being like Bruce in that particular way. Batman’s lies had threatened to rip apart the dynamic duo as well as their little family too many times.

Okay, so running theory: Wally was miffed because meeting his ex made him feel like Dick had lied to him. 

If that was the case, it would only make sense that Dick should talk to him. Dick hit his head against the wall lightly. No duh. He’d already known that.

The real question, the one he was dancing around, was what should he _say._ He needed to say something that explained to Wally that he hadn’t meant to lie and that he was sorry and also-

Holy ginger Batman!

Dick banged his head against the wall significantly harder this time, pulling back only when he realized Wally might hear him.

What if Wally noticed how similar he looked to Mark. 

Dick suddenly found the shower suffocating instead soothing. He shut off the water and grabbed his towel.

That would actually explain so much about how uncomfortable and weird Wally was acting. And the not being able to look at Mark. How could Dick even begin to explain to Wally why his ex boyfriend looked so similar to him?

He… he couldn’t. There was no way to explain that except telling Wally the truth.

Just kidding. The joker’s laugh played in Dick’s head. _That_ was hilarious. The day Dick revealed his feelings and ruined his friendship with Wally, would be the day Bruce learned how to show affection like a normal person.

So… alternatives. There was really only one. He wouldn’t explain it. He would pray to god Wally wouldn’t bring it up and if he did, he would just say it was a coincidence. Maybe Wally would drop it.

Dick pulled on his pajamas and realized he no longer had an excuse to hide in the bathroom. Eyeing the door apprehensively, he couldn’t help but feel that this was more nerve racking than infiltrating Cadmus. 

Naturally, he had no way of knowing that on the other side of the bathroom door, Wally was thinking much the same thing. He was pacing and it was taking all of his self control not to be going at superspeed. 

He _had_ to talk to Dick. He needed answers. What had been between him in Mark? Was there something _still_ there? What was Dick’s life like outside the masks? How much was Wally missing?

Wally hadn’t even known Dick was gay!! When had Dick figured that out? Why hadn’t he told Wally? Just add that to the pile of things about Dick he didn’t know.

Wally flopped onto the bed, burying his face in a pillow and screaming in frustration. 

They definitely needed to talk.

He sat back up, casting around the room for a distraction. Unfortunately, he’d already used up all his distractions. His suitcase was unpacked and he’d already changed pajama shorts and a t-shirt. All at normal speed.

He missed running.

Before he could think or do anything else, the bathroom door swung open. Wally startled, jerking into a sitting position. He hadn’t even noticed the water shutting off.

Dick stood frozen in the doorway trapped under Wally’s gaze.

“So… Mark.” 

It took Wally a couple seconds to figure out who said it. In the end it was Dick’s frown that gave it away. 

Dick’s shoulders fell with a heavy sigh. “Look, Wally, I should have warned you in advance and I’m sorry.”

“What else don’t I know?” Wally had never been good at tact.

Dick took a step forward, putting his hands up in a placating sort of gesture. “Walls I know it’s a lot to take in-”

“A lot to take in?”-a harsh bark of laughter tore from his throat-“Dick I didn’t even know my best friend was gay until a week ago! No wonder you never talked about girls with me. And a boyfriend? A serious one that you like did stuff with?” Wally knew he was getting hysterical and he cut himself off abruptly.

“I know Wally. I just- shit I’m becoming Bruce.” Dick gave his own hysterical laugh turning away from Wally to pace the room. “I didn’t mean to keep secrets or anything I just… how am I supposed to talk to you about Dick Grayson! He… I, have this whole life I wasn’t sure you could even relate to. I was just worried we wouldn’t have anything in common and what could I possibly say to you about that life? Where would I start?”

“With the truth! That’s what best friends do. They talk to each other and they support each other. I just… thought I knew more about you.” Wally finishes in a mumble. 

Dick stopped pacing and turned to look at Wally. “You’re my best friend. You know more about me than anyone else. Except maybe Bruce, but that’s because he’s Batman and he practically stalks me.” He kept a straight face for all of five seconds before he and Wally broke down laughing at the same time.

“Careful, he could be watching right now,” Wally gasped between laughs.

Dick doubled over, clutching his stomach. When they both finally settled down he said quietly, “So much for a serious conversation.”

Wally snorted, slightly shocked he still had the air in him to do that. “When have we ever had a serious conversation?”

“Point.”

At some point in their laughter Dicks knees had given out, landing him on the bed. Next to Wally.

Comfortable silence passed. It took a few minutes for either of them to remember why it shouldn’t be comfortable, but it still was.

“Hey, Walls,” Dick said quietly. “I should have told you about Mark. It was months ago and I wasn’t even out yet. I mean, I kinda thought you knew after I told the news, but you never said anything and I didn’t know if it was because you hadn’t seen or you just didn’t care or if you weren’t ok with it and were trying to ignore it so I didn’t say anything.”

Wally turned his head to look at Dick laying beside him. _Now’s your chance Wally. Tell him the truth._ “Dude, of course I’m ok with it. It’d be a little hypocritical if I wasn’t, you know?”

“I appreciate-” Dick cut off, abruptly sitting up to look down at Wally.

Oops. Had that been the wrong thing to say? Bad timing? Wally sat up too.

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Dick asked.

Wally picked at his shorts, looking anywhere but at his best friend. “Uh, yeah. I’m bi. For real.”

Biting his lip, Dick seemed to pause as if trying to decide what to say.

Wally glanced over at him and then quickly away, trying hard not to think about how hot Dick looked when he bit his lip or anything else for that matter. 

The silence stretched on.

And on.

Maybe it was Wally's speedster sense of time, but it felt like it had been ages. “Please say something.”

Dick sighed. “I want to ask why you didn’t tell me, but all things considered, that might be a bit hypocritical.”

Shrugging, Wally responded, “I always kind of intended to, but you never asked. It’s not like I ever lied about it, it was just never relevant or the right time.” After a moment's hesitation he added, “That’s actually the boat I’m in with everyone. I was gonna use this fake dating thing to come out for real to my friends and family.”

“Wow, I had no idea,” Dick said, leaning back to lie on the bed again.

“I mean, how would you?”

Wally laid back down too and they fell back into comfortable silence.

At length, Dick offered, “I’ll answer any questions you have. I want to be honest with you about the other half of my life. Just, ask away.”

Wally rushed to reassure him, “You don’t have to do that. I was kind of being a douche, I’m not entitled to know everything about-”

“But I want you to.” Dick interjected firmly. “I really want you to feel like you know all of me.”

Wally considered that for a moment, vehemently shoving away the innuendo that could have been in those words, _but definitely wasn’t._ “Ok, man. Just remember, you asked for it… ”

Dick laughed. “Please. I think I can handle a few personal questions.”

Wally smiled devilishly. “What happened at Channer’s New Years party that involved a cocktail dress and makeup?”

Dick groaned.

In the end, Wally did hear a fascinating story about sleep deprivation, dress up, a literal pig, some devilish ladies that would rival Artemis in strength of will, and a complete lack of adult supervision, but it hardly ended there.

They talked for hours, Wally learning everything he could about Robin’s other life. He learned that despite how Dick always complained about the galas, he actually kind of enjoyed them. He was able to get away with minimal networking and talking to stuffy old people. In the end, he usually ended up talking to the other aristocrats kids that were nearish his age and snacking on fancy finger food.

He’d made a lot of friends that way. Apparently, Dick Grayson was pretty popular. 

Dick’s eyes wondered and he got kind of distant like he was less talking to Wally and more speaking his thoughts aloud when he talked about how he used to keep everyone at an arm’s length to keep them away from the vigilante stuff, but as he grew up, some people had just refused to stay at that arm's length. People like Kizzy. That was partly why he’d been staying away from Kizzy the past few months. She’d been getting too close for comfort.

He also mentioned a kid named Tim who was apparently growing on him. Tim was a bit younger, but he acted older and he belonged to the Drakes, a prominent Gotham family, so Dick saw him at a lot of galas. The kid was quiet, but he was also smart and once Dick had gotten him to open up, he had a dry and somewhat morbid sense of humor. For some reason Dick had yet to nail down, the kid idolized him. But recently, Tim had given him reason to think it was possible he was being abused, and Dick was beginning to look into how bad it was and ways to get Tim away.

They talked about a dozen other things, and by the end of it Wally was reeling. Dick’s other life was just as interesting to Wally as Robin’s was.

After Dick seemed to have said everything there was to say and Wally ran out of questions, they both brushed their teeth and got ready for bed in the bathroom.

Which lead them to now. Standing uncomfortably near the door to the bathroom. Both looking at the single bed.

“You know, it’s fine if you want me to sleep on the couch.” Wally tried for nonchalant. He missed by a long shot.

“No, uh, it’s alright.” Dick answered, jolting out of his discomfort to walk around the bed and slip under the covers as far to the left as he could get. “This bed’s pretty big. We should be okay.”

“Right. Of course.” Wally replied, walking around the other side of the bed warily to slip under the covers on the right side, leaving nearly a foot and a half of space between them.

“‘Night Walls.”

“‘Night Dick.”

Wally drifted to sleep listening to Dick’s even breathing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I just name dropped Tim Drake. No, it is not that relevant to the story.
> 
> At least they're finally talking and clearing the air! Even if they didn't admit to certain very important things yet... 


	8. Flying and Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance for doing this to Dick. But, I mean, the kid’s got traumas and traumas cause nightmares. I don’t feel too bad though because Wally’s there to help.

Believe it or not, there was a time when Dick slept easily. 

He’d always been able to remember his dreams, and when he was a kid travelling with Haley's Circus and his parents, he’d dreamt every night of flying. He’d be running in a field or around the ring and he’d just, sprout wings. He’d lift off and soar through the air and it had been magnificent. It had felt just like trapeze. 

Then his parents were murdered.

Dick had watched the ropes snap, watched them fall from the sky they’d once flown through, and his dreams had changed.

Instead of flying, he fell. It didn’t matter how the dream started, sometimes he was back at Haley’s or on patrol or in any one of a million other places, it always ended with him free falling- the good ones did anyway.

The bad ones were much worse. In the bad ones, he wasn’t the one falling. 

He was frozen, unable to do anything but scream, and he was forced to watch his parents fall all over again. Not just his parents though- no, that would be too kind. 

As he’d come to see Bruce as a father, and his team as a family, it wasn’t just his parents falling. Sometimes it was Bruce or Alfred, sometimes it was one of his team members, sometimes it was Wally.

At first, he’d woken up screaming. Alfred had been there to make him hot chocolate and watch stupid cartoons until Dick fell asleep again. 

Dick had gotten better at hiding it as time wore on. Between Bat training and practice, Dick figured out how to wake up quietly and leave those nightmares in his bed so he could live without them. Maybe that’s why he had always been so reckless with the way he flew over Gotham’s roof tops. As a direct defiance of his own PTSD.

Of course, no one knew any of that. Once he’d figured out how to hide the nightmares, he had told Alfred they stopped. 

So, Dick wasn’t too worried about Wally figuring it out.

Tonight was one of the nights where he was the one falling. Black Canary might have told him that was because of all the anxiety he was feeling yesterday, but Black Canary wasn’t there.

It started out normal. He was at some sort of gala, waltzing with some old lady- but then her mouth stretched into an impossibly wolfish smile just like the corpses of those infected with Joker gas except she was still waltzing, holding him in an iron grip. She opened her impossible mouth, and crooned, “Young boy like you, it’s a shame you’re taking after _him_. Tell me a lie, Boy Blunder.”

“I-” Dick cut off stumbling backwards and ripping painfully out of her grasp. 

“Sing for me little birdy. Say something.” The light in the ballroom around them bleached away, leaving only darkness and the old lady’s increasingly wide and impossible smile.

Dick scrambled backward.

Her hair began falling out in clumps, bright green hair growing in its place. Her dress dissolved to reveal a purple suit. The skin visible on her hands and face turned white as a sheet and her thin lips filled in red.

Dick’s eyes widened in horror as the Joker- _woman_ took a step forward, forcing him even further back. His foot hit empty space and he toppled backward off the edge of the dance floor.

He fell through open air like he always did, images passing by faster than he could really take in, a familiar melting pot of fear, dread, and panic welling in his chest.

Then something new happened. Something that had never happened before. A strong pair of arms wrapped around Dick’s middle, lifting him up and stopping his fall. The dream faded away and Dick fell into a deeper sleep than he had in years.

***

Dick woke up slowly.

That really should have been his first hint something was up. Bats don’t wake up “slowly”. They wake up alert and ready to fight.

Yet here he was. Slowly regaining his senses. 

The first thing he was aware of was the smell of a hotel room. Something like cleaners and air freshener. He wasn’t at home.

The next was the sound of steady breathing right next to his ear. _That must be Wally,_ he thought as he remembered where he was.

Something warm was pressed against his back, hugging him. Without meaning to, he snuggled closer to Wally.

Wait- what- Wally?!

Dick’s eyes opened to see the room exactly as he remembered it, lit by a lamp they had forgotten to turn off last night.

For a moment, Dick contemplated just staying like that. It was absurdly comfortable and he would probably never get a chance to cuddle with Wally like this again, so why not?

Then he pictured Wally waking up and jerking away all embarrassed and being weird about it the rest of the day. He sighed softly. Staying might impede the mission or hurt his friendship with Wally. He had to move before Wally woke up.

Without much difficulty, he managed to slip from Wally’s arms, replacing himself with a fluffy pillow, and escape to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

After Dick closed the door, Wally sighed in frustration. He’d been hoping for another few minutes before Dick woke up and left. 

He sat up, wondering why he’d let himself do that. He only vaguely remembered it, he’d been half asleep after all, but he was pretty sure he remembered Dick curling up in a ball like he was trying to shield himself from something and he’d just… rolled over and hugged him. Dick had relaxed in his arms and they’d both fallen back asleep.

Wally allowed himself another moment to wallow and mourn the loss of Dick’s body against his own before sitting up to lean against the headboard.

Wally sat there in a daze, vaguely aware of the faucet running in the bathroom. He’d known Dick would leave when he woke up, but what really held Wally’s attention was the little wiggle Dick had done to nuzzle closer to Wally and the soft little sigh that had sounded almost… disappointed?

An instinctive reaction to being cuddled, right? Surely being raised by Batman almost half his life had Dick touch starved. Wally’s heart twinged painfully, he’d never wanted to hold Dick more.

Before Wally could really figure it out the door to the bathroom opened.

“Mornin’,” Dick greeted, leaning against the door jam.

Wally smiled back. “Sleep well?”

Dick stiffened looking away abruptly. “Y-yeah.”

Wally smiled wider. 

Coughing once into his hand, Dick changed the subject. “So most of the time we’re all free to roam around and use the facilities of this base however we please, but dinner is a more mandatory affair and everyone will be there.”

“Oh?” Wally said, urging Dick to keep going. While he talked, Wally got up to root around for clothes.

“I think I should do some snooping then. Any other time of day there will be dozens of rich kids roaming around and knowing that, Lex will be more alert. Watching for someone to be in the wrong place with bad intentions. This way the staff will be focused in one place and I should run into less resistance.”

“Alright, sounds good. Won’t someone notice we’re missing though?” Wally asked, finally finding a suitable shirt and yanking his off to change.

Dick took a deep breath like he was bracing himself, immediately putting Wally on edge. “No. They won’t notice _I’m_ missing because you’ll be at dinner covering for me.”

Wally snapped around to look at him. “Wait a second, you expect me to let you scout out LexCorp alone? Dude this guy is dangerous, I’m not gonna let you ghost me.”

“Wally-” 

What would have undoubtedly been a well thought out argument as to why Wally should let Dick go alone was cut off by a sharp knock on the door.

Wally shot one very long _We’ll finish this later_ glare at Dick before walking quickly to the door and fixing a polite smile on his face. He opened the door. “Yes?”

Wally was met with a slightly shocked looking Kizzy and Liv. 

Liv turned away, laughing into her hand. Kizzy’s eyes swept down Wally’s body and back up again to meet his eyes calmly. 

“Sorry for interrupting, can we come in?” Wally froze suddenly remembering he didn’t have a shirt on and his hair was a mess. “We brought food,” Kizzy added, lifting the tray she was holding slightly to emphasize her point.

Wally nodded mutely, not trusting his voice, and stepped aside to let the girls in. Liv was just getting herself under control when she passed him.

Wally shut the door quickly and scrambled to the bedroom to grab a shirt. Dick, the bloody traitor, gave him one long amused look and walked out to greet the girls.

When he got back everyone was already seated on the ground with the food in the middle.

Wally sat down as casually as he could, stealing a piece of bacon off Dick’s plate.

“No wonder you two weren’t at breakfast,” Liv said casually.

“Although, I’d expect better from you Dick. Where was the tie on the doorknob? We would have left you alone if you’d given us some sort of heads up,” Kizzy continued.

Dick looked away, blushing furiously. “No you wouldn’t have.”

“You’re right. We wouldn’t have, but still, I would have liked the time to mentally prepare myself before seeing your sexed up boyfriend at 11 in the morning.” Kiz responded nonchalantly. 

Now Wally was blushing too. “That’s not- we- why would you-”

Kizzy cut him off by laughing hysterically, nearly falling into the food. Luckily, Liv caught her in time and directed their mutual laughing fit to fall backwards.

Wally stared pointedly at the floor, trying not to look at Dick or think too hard about the implication.

In the meantime he got himself some food and started eating.

When the girls finally stopped laughing, Dick said, “You done yet?”

Liv grinned devilishly. “Yeah, just one question.”

They both groaned. 

“Which one of you is the top?”

Wally froze.

“W-we’re not gonna answer that,” Dick said.

“Oh come on! Just tell us. We won’t stop bugging you until we get an answer.” Liv threatened.

Wally finally made eye contact with his best friend. He looked as horrified as Wally felt. 

“Tell us! Tells us! Tell us!” the couple chanted together.

Deciding they weren’t gonna stop, Wally took the path of least resistance. “Fine! I’m not saying we’ve done… anything, but I would top.”

“What?” Dick practically yelped in surprise. _There goes my best friend and my pride,_ Wally thought. “That’s BS Walls, I would totally top.”

Wally blinked in surprise before smiling. “Yeah right. I’m taller so I’d top. I have, like, leverage.”

“Sure you’re taller, but I’m stronger. I could hold you down.”

Wally’s cheeks flushed at the images going through his head, but he kept going anyway. “Sure, but you’re really flexible so-”

“Okay, okay! We get it. Sorry for asking. Jesus, how hard is it to answer a simple question without getting into the down and dirty of your sex lives?” Kiz said, throwing up a hand and turning her head away in disgust.

It was Dick and Wally’s turn to break down laughing.

“So how was breakfast without us? Lonely?” Dick asked once they’d all calmed down.

The morning went on easily enough. They talked and ate until Dick pulled a deck of cards out of seemingly nowhere and they played euchre. They even watched _Now You See Me._ The girls’ favorite character was Daniel, but for some reason Dick really didn’t like him.

Before they knew it, it was 6.

“Ok boys, this was fun, but I’m hungry and we should get going,” Kiz said.

Wally glanced at the clock, surprised to see how late it was. “Ok.”

They left together, heading for the dining hall. 

Wally was kind of shocked at how genuinely happy he was. He was having fun. That was one thing he hadn’t particularly anticipated. Kizzy and Liv were both good people and Wally kind of wished he was able to hang out with them more, but after this mission was over he’d probably never see them again.

“Remember the plan,” Dick whispered in his ear, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Before Wally could protest, Dick pulled away and smoothly inserted himself into the girls conversation, leaving Wally to flounder as he remembered Dick’s self destructive plan to walk into the belly of the beast alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone catch my Jesse Eisenberg Now You See Me/ Batman V Superman reference? Because if you did, you’re my new best friend.


	9. Did that just happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know how hacking works. Or computers really, so I just went with movie hacking rules. So I apologize for anything that was stupid or impossible.

Pre memorized schematics and floor plans spun through Dick’s head beside his own notes and observations.

There were approximately five viable paths to the computer banks that he needed to get to in order to hack Lex’s system and retrieve the data that would hopefully tell him if Lex was planning something. Five paths that twisted and wound through the building and were all far longer than Dick was totally comfortable with.

Two of them involved air ducts. Those were the ones he would prefer to use. The air ducts would keep him out of sight in case any stray workers were wondering around. 

The rest of them involved stopping by smaller computer banks to hack into the cameras that the other paths just avoided. It would be nice to have those eyes in the sky- even if he could only keep them as long as he was snooping. Any longer than that and Lex would notice any bugs in his system.

While he mulled over his plans, Dick glanced periodically at Wally. His friend looked worried, but also oddly steady. Like he was sure of something. It was the look he got on missions before he did something of highly questionable safety that had definitely not been approved by the team.

It set Dick on edge.

Nevertheless, he told himself that it didn’t matter because he trusted Wally to have his back and cover for his absence. No matter what. That, at least, was true. He trusted Wally.

The dining room turned out to be more of a ballroom and instead of one table for everyone to eat at, there were several smaller tables scattered throughout the room with one long spread at the front of them room which was covered in food. 

Looking around, Dick saw that teenagers were already scattered throughout the room at tables and some just standing in pairs or groups. As one, the four of them went to the buffet table to put together plates of food before heading to an already forming mass of teenagers that Dick recognized as friends of Kizzy’s.

The group was sitting around a table, already talking animatedly, so Dick pulled up a chair and plopped down to listen for a bit before smoothly inserting himself into the conversation. Wally and the girls did the same. In a few moments, he had blended seamlessly into the group. He took a second to reflect about how that had always been one of his greatest strengths. His people skills.

His ability to work with a team and to read people were, of course, obvious assets, but most people never thought to consider how helpful it could be to put people at ease. It helped with everything from getting witnesses to talk to talking down bad guys that were really just scared beneath it all to maintaining his cover or squeezing secrets out of people without them even realizing.

All together it made him formidable as a spy or information gatherer.

Was gatherer a word? It was totally a word. Dick made a mental note to use it at the next opportunity.

Wally glanced sideways at him.

And again.

Dick made another mental note to teach Wally how to observe less obviously after this was over.

The wariness was practically rolling off Wally in waves. It was a miracle that none of the aristocrats surrounding them noticed his tenseness. This marked the 27th time Wally had glanced at him like that in 20 minutes. Dick had had enough.

Sensing a lull in the group conversation he was currently engaging in, Dick leaned over to brush his lips against Wally’s ear and whisper, “ _Relax._ ”

Wally startled a little as Dick leaned into him and whispered into his ear, fighting hard to keep the blush off his cheeks. Had he been that obvious? He’d thought he was being discrete, but this _was_ Dick so… 

Wally consciously made the effort to relax his muscles, sinking slightly into his chair and, incidentally, Dick. After stewing over it for half an hour, Wally was pretty sure he knew sort of what he was going to say to Dick. He just had to bide his time and wait for the right moment.

That moment was apparently now. 

Both of their plates had been empty for a while, so Dick stood gracefully, picking them both up in the process. “I think I’ll take care of these and take a bathroom break. Be back before you know it, babe.”

His easy smile was natural enough that everyone else at the table immediately dismissed him, not thinking twice about his words.

Not Wally. “Hate to leave you alone, I’ll come too,” he said quickly, standing and taking back their plates before Dick could protest.

He started walking confidently away, knowing his best friend would follow. When they got to the sink, Wally deposited the dishes with a bright smile and finally turned to face his fake boyfriend. “Let’s go.”

Dick’s mouth formed a tight line and his brow furrowed. It wasn’t angry exactly- just, exasperated. “Wally, this will be better as a _solo_ op.”

“This is dangerous Dick. I’ll stay out of the way and all, but I’m coming with you. Besides, you have to admit people would notice if I was sitting there all alone more than if we both disappeared,” Wally said reasonably. “And you might not want to look so much like we’re fighting.” he leaned in close, smirking. “ _Relax._ ”

Dick gave him what came pretty damn close to a Batglare before smoothing his features into a pained smile. “I can handle this.”

Wally smiled back easily. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily, Rob.”

Dick sighed at the nickname, his smile smaller, but more real and definitely amused now. “Fine. You asked for it, KF.”

The redhead practically beamed. “That I did, birdie.”

Slipping his arm around Wally’s back, Dick leaned into him and whispered, “Act horny and head towards the bathroom.”

Wally almost balked at the command but instead smiled dopily and leaned into Dick just as much so their walk was slightly tipsy.

Dick mentally crossed the air duct paths off his list. He _was not_ taking Wally through the ducts. That would just be a mess. Instead he settled on the path with the most empty rooms along it. Sure, the rooms increased the chances of running into a maid or something, but they also afforded hiding places that were well worth it.

Wally and Dick got to the bathroom area without incident and slipped past it toward the computer dock just as easily. “Keep a look out,” Dick muttered as he pulled his wrist computer out of his waistband. He quickly hooked it up and hacked into the basic security feed.

First order of business, he deleted the footage of him and Wally making it to the computer bank and replaced it with repeated footage of an empty hallway. Then he connected the real feed to his wrist computer so he could keep an eye out as they moved. On the terminal and in Lex’s system, he looped the footage of the hallways he and Wally would need. Covering his tracks expertly and exiting the system. 

“Done.”

“That was fast,” Wally said. 

Dick snorted. “You doubted me?”

Wally smiled. “Never.”

“Good.”

Dick swept away, trusting Wally to follow him. He moved with the same grace he always did when he was Robin. The confident fluidity that he masked as Dick Grayson. Wally found it far to pleasant to trail behind somewhat and watch Dick’s hips sway while Dick watched his wrist computer.

Three times Dick stopped to pull Wally into one of the many nearly empty closets lining the hallways to hide while they waited for guards to walk past, but the place was nearly deserted as they made their way to the computer bank. 

When they got there, Dick whistled appreciatively at the computer and sat down, not even bothering to give Wally an order. 

Wally was kind of flattered.

He stood in the door keeping an eye out for any guards coming their way.

Sooner than he would have thought possible, Dick was taping him on the shoulder.

“There were some weird things going on with the encryption so I’ll have to finish in our room, but I copied the files so we should get going.”

Wally nodded and they headed back the way they came, Dick with his eyes glued to his wrist computer, Wally watching out for both of them. He knew Dick was only comfortable watching his screen because he was there and it was an oddly comforting thought. Dick may never love him or return Wally’s feelings, but he was still his best friend and he still trusted him.

Wally was just thinking how much he wished he could run and just get them back there in the blink of an eye when Dick suddenly grabbed his sleeve and yanked him into a near empty supply closet.

“Shit. KF we’ve got problems,” He said, checking the hallway and pulling the door closed, turning on the light as he went. “They saw a blip in their system, not enough for concern- not even enough to get back to Lex- but they’re searching the hallways and all these empty rooms. We’re cut off and they’ll be here any second.”

Wally bit his lip, fidgeting distractedly. “Maybe I could run us out?”

Dick shook his head distractedly. “No. Even for a protocol sweep like this they would have turned on meta sensors. They’d know we were here if you so much wiggled your finger at super speed.” Wally gulped, but not because of his words, because of the look on his face.

It was reluctant, but that was definitely his idea face. Robin had a plan and for some reason, he didn’t like it.

“We’ve got 40 seconds,” Dick informed him.

“Rob, you’ve got a plan, tell me.” 

“I-” Robin cut himself off, bit his lip, and started again, “Yeah I have a plan.”

“Then do it,” Wally urged trying and failing to keep the impatience out of his voice.

Dick froze for a second, then relaxed and began removing his wrist computer to stow it away again. “You trust me, right?”

Proceeding with caution, Wally answered, “With my life.”

“Good.” Dick stepped right into Wally’s personal space, grabbing the front of his shirt. “Then make this a damn good coverup.”

Then he did something Wally had imagined a thousand times, but had never expected to happen; he kissed him.

Dick yanked Wally forward by his shirt, smashing their lips together before letting up a little. Wally froze momentarily because _holy shit Dick Grayson was kissing him andwowhislipsweresoftandwhatwashappeningand-_

Dick’s words clicked in Wally’s head. A cover up. He remembered seeing this once in a movie and suddenly it all made sense. That was the last coherent thought Wally managed before he let his body relax into the kiss.

He brought his hands to Dick’s waist, pulling him closer. Dick took that as permission to start moving, releasing his grip on Wally’s shirt to leave one hand flat on Wally’s chest, trapped between them, and to slide the other into his ginger curls. He’d always loved Wally’s hair. He started moving his lips against Wally’s.

Dick’s internal timer told him he had about 20 more seconds.

Wally bent his knees slightly, leaning down a bit to let his hands skip over Dick’s ass and tap the backs of his thighs. Dick took the hint and hopped a little, letting Wally pick him up, supporting him with both hands on Dick’s thighs.

Dick’s mouth moved against his, both hands in Wally’s hair now. Wally started walking, until Dick hit the wall. Pressing him up against it, Wally closed the space between them even more.

Dick pulled back ever so slightly, breaking their kiss. Before Wally could even process it, Dick had reattached, licking along Wally’s jaw until he got to Wally’s ear which he nibbled on. He shifted slightly to pull Wally’s shirt to the side and started to suck on Wally’s neck.

Wally moaned, tilting his head to the side to give Dick better access. He could feel himself growing hard and, more pressingly, he could feel Dick growing hard too. If he were thinking straight, he might be worried about that, but all he could do was moan and lose himself in the sensation of Dick sucking a hickey low on his neck.

Then the door banged open.

“Nothin’ in- hey wait!” someone yelled, “There’s two kids in ‘ere!”

Dick yanked away, suddenly squirming in Wally’s grip. Wally obligingly let him down and stepped away to put space between them, achingly aware of how hard he was.

“Um… sorry?” Dick tried, grinning devilishly like he wasn’t in any trouble at all.

The guards eyes swept between them, taking in Wally’s exposed shoulder and neck, bruise already starting to form there, swollen lips, and ruffled hair. Dick wasn’t much better, but somehow he wore it with a cocky playboy grin that reminded Wally painfully and forcefully of Dick Grayson’s status and reputation.

The guard’s offensive stance fell away to a more bored and relaxed one, but he still looked cautious. “What are you kids doing here?”

Dick snorted, moving close enough to lace his fingers with Wally’s, “What did it look like? We were looking for a private place to… make out,” he said it with a suggestive smirk that definitely implied more, “Our room is just-” he sighed dramatically “-so far.”

The guard frowned. “Kid, you’re in a restricted area.”

Dick made a show of looking around. “Didn’t see any signs on the way in.”

The guard frowned in irritation. “Whatever. Just get lost.”

Smiling graciously, Dick thanked him and tugged Wally past the gard and out of the room, snuggling into him slightly as they walked down the hallway. 

He laughed clear and high once as if they both found something funny and then they turned the hallway. Dick silently thanked the powers that be that they were close to their room. 

“Should we tell Kiz or-” Wally started to ask.

“No,” Dick cut him off. “They’ll figure it out.”

So they passed the dining room and went straight to their room. 

As soon as the door closed, Dick’s hand fell out of his and he pulled away to put distance between them. 

“I need to doctor some footage to explain how we got to that closet,” he explained briefly then he was gone.

And Wally kind of felt like a piece of their friendship might be gone too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo I have zero personal experience to go off of and am mostly copying what I’ve seen in other fics, the intimate scenes are gonna be pretty bad. It doesn’t help that this is my first time trying this kind of thing either so… cut me some slack.
> 
> Also, I have this headcannon that among Bats, ‘I trust you’ means more than ‘I love you’. So when Dick says he trusts Wally...


	10. Yup. That just happened.

“We need to talk.”

Dick’s fingers paused on the keyboard, but continued as if nothing had happened. “Talk about what?”

Wally continued staring at him. “That kiss.”

Very purposely keeping his attention on the laptop balanced precariously on his knees, Dick only sighed in response. “What’s there to talk about.”

Frowning, Wally leaned forward slightly. “Clearly there’s something to talk about considering you’re avoiding me.”

“I’m not avoiding you,” Dick defended, still typing.

“Oh yeah? You finished your hacking thing 10 minutes ago.”

Dick’s fingers finally stalled. With a heavy sigh, he closed the laptop. “You got me,” he said, smiling guiltily.

For a moment they stayed like that, Dick sitting on the chair he’d pulled into their bedroom, Wally sitting on the bed. 

Dick was mentally compiling a list of all the curse words he knew in multiple languages purely because he knew the alternative was thinking about how he had basically just screwed up the only totally pure relationship he had. Thinking about it now, he would have rather screwed the mission and taken out the security guard.

He’d hoped that maybe Wally would be happy ignoring it and mutually pretending it never happened, but no. He wanted to _talk about it_ and _address their issues_ like _fully functioning adults._

Where had he even learned that? Was that something Bruce was supposed to teach Dick as a father figure? If it was- total fail.

“Look, I get it.” Wally’s words jerked Dick out of his thoughts. “You’re uncomfortable. You don’t know what just happened, and you’re grossed out. You probably want to forget about it and get away from me. In fact, if we weren’t on a mission, you’d already be gone- am I right?”

Dick considered pinching himself to make absolutely sure Wally had just said that. Everything he was saying was just so wrong. It was backwards, practically the complete opposite of the truth. But more frightening than that, what if Wally was right? If they weren’t on a mission, would he have run? He had been avoiding this discussion and wasn’t that as close as he could get to running in current circumstances? After all, that’s what Batman did- he ran from his emotions. So why not Dick?

“Wally that’s not how I feel at all. I’m just… in shock. A little bit,” Dick tried.

Wally’s face fell. “That bad, huh? It’s ok, you don’t have to sugar coat it.”

“No, Wally,” He didn’t know how to make Wally understand without saying something compromising. In his frustration, Dick stood up from his chair to stand in front of Wally, looking down at him.“The kiss wasn’t bad.”

Wally scoffed looking away from Dick’s eyes. “Dick, if you hate me, I need you to rip the bandage off and say it.”

“I liked it.” The words slipped out before Dick could stop them.

Wally’s mouth fell open in shock and confusion and he finally met Dick’s gaze. 

Dick bit his lip. Well, this was happening. If Wally didn’t hate him after that kiss, he probably would after this.

“I liked the kiss because, I like you. I… I love you Wally. And not in the friend way,” Dick started to turn away in an attempt to put space between them. “I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me, but I do still want to be friends even-”

Before he could get any farther, a hand wrapped around his wrist pulling him back and off balance. He probably would have fallen over if Wally wasn’t suddenly there- _right there_ \- catching him. Dick fell against Wally, pressing into his chest. Some small part of him wondered if Wally had used superspeed to stand up that quickly.

Dick brought his eyes up slowly to find himself looking right into Wally’s emerald green eyes.

“Did you mean that?” Wally breathed.

Staring into Wally’s endlessly deep emerald eyes, Dick lost any ability he might have ever had to lie. “Y-yeah. Every word.”

Wally’s answering smile seemed to brighten the dim room. “Can I kiss you again?”

Dick didn’t trust his voice so he just nodded.

Wally leaned forward slowly, pressing his lips softly against Dick’s. The kiss was everything that their first kiss wasn’t. Their first kiss had been quick and sloppy and hot and full of pent up emotions. This one was slow and sweet and everything they’d never said. 

Dick melted into it, fitting his body perfectly against Wally’s and marvelling at the warmth. He tried to poor his multiyear crush and subdued feelings into it. Saying I love you with every flick of his tongue or small sigh.

Wally moaned into his mouth and suddenly the kiss wasn’t slow _or_ sweet. Wally stumbled backward until the backs of his knees hit the bed and he sat down heavily, pulling Dick down on top of him. 

Dick straddled him, grinding down into Wally and licking into his mouth more urgently.

“Wally… ” he moaned.

Apparently that did something to Wally because he growled, jerking up into Dick.

Suddenly, Wally pulled back, “We should talk about this?”

Dick almost groaned. “Wouldn’t you rather talk in the morning?” he grinded down slightly to emphasize his point. “But if you really want to, yeah we can-”

“Morning,” Wally cut him off. “Tomorrow morning is good.”

Dick smiled, planting his hands on Wally’s shoulders and pushing backward so Wally fell back onto the bed. “That leaves us all night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I do actually have smut written for this. It's not heavy or anything exactly but it's upwards of 2000 words so if you guys want to read that I'm going to try to put that in a new fic and make this a series.


	11. We straighten a few things out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to yell at me because of the pun in the chapter title, I completely deserve it.

When Wally woke up, he was alone.

His first coherent thought was that Dick was gone. Shooting into a sitting position, his eyes swiveled instinctively to the door.

For a second, he expected Dick’s suitcase to be gone, along with any other trace of the pseudo-Bat. Panic swelled in his chest as his mind circled in thoughts that, had he been more awake, wouldn’t have made sense.

_Dick was gone. He left. It was a mistake. It probably never would have worked anyway, right? Dick would’ve had to reveal his identity to the team wouldn’t he? And Wally was being stupid he’d just lost his-_

The suitcase was still there. And Dick was sitting in the chair he had abandoned last night with his laptop balanced on his thighs, looking at Wally with wide startled eyes.

“Welcome to the land of the living,” he said dryly, his expression smoothing out and then shifting to one of concern. “You ok?”

“Yeah,” Wally said automatically, smiling far too wide.

At that, Dick closed his laptop, set it to the side, and frowned in concern. “Talk to me Walls. What’s wrong?”

“I...” Wally’s smile faltered. He wasn’t totally sure what to do. Dick would know if he lied. “Had a bad dream,” he finished lamely. There was some truth in it. Enough to convince Dick apparently.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked sympathetically. Or at least, Wally used to think it was sympathy. He knew better now; it was empathy.

Wally smiled. “Not unless you want to hear about me fighting the entire Rogue gallery in my underpants.”

Dick laughed, but Wally could see the lingering worry beneath it. “You probably want a shower, yeah? I already took mine. Honestly I’m kind of impressed you slept through it.” Dick laughed, picking up his laptop again to continue tapping away at the keys.

He was right. Wally kind of felt sticky and gross all over. He definitely needed a shower. Wally suddenly became very aware of the bed sheets pooled around his waist and the complete lack of anything underneath them. He also noted that Dick was wearing an old T-shirt that fit him loosely and boxers. 

How on Earth was he supposed to get to the bathroom.

“Uh, yeah. Thanks,” he said tentatively.

Dick didn’t even look up. He was completely absorbed in the screen. Wally sighed internally, it wasn’t like Dick hadn’t already seen everything. Wally made his way to the bathroom, stopping to pick up a change of clothes on the way. As he’d suspected, Dick never even looked up and he made it to the shower in peace.

Once under the steady stream of hot water, Wally let himself think. 

He wanted to date Dick.

Like, really date. Not just a one night stand sort of thing, he wanted dates and PDA and little shared moments- the whole shebang. 

Did Dick want that? It had sounded like that last night. So… theoretically, how would that even work? If Wally West was dating Dick Grayson, the media would know. Eventually the team would find out and since they all knew Wally’s identity they would _know_.

But then, if Kid Flash started dating Robin, they’d probably accuse him of cheating. _We could always feign polyamory,_ Wally mused. 

But he dismissed the idea almost immediately. He was a monogamous sort of guy and lying about it to make his life easier felt disrespectful to the people that actually struggled to be taken seriously.

Maybe he could date Robin and only do things with Dick in private? Speaking of which… how were they going to explain their relationship to the team? Wally snorted, Artemis was probably going to tease them for days.

Actually, weren’t these the kind of things he was supposed to be discussing with Dick, like, now? Half of these questions couldn’t be answered without him. Besides, Dick always knew what to do. It was a Bat thing.

Wally shook his head violently. He did _not_ need to be thinking about Daddy Bats right now.

Wally decided that he wasn’t getting anywhere. He was probably just torturing himself by staying in the bathroom any longer, so he finished up and dressed quickly in gym shorts and a t-shirt. 

He opened the door, leaning on the door jam. “Whatch ya doin’ Birdie?”

Dick glanced up smiling. “Almost done. I’ll have a debrief ready on the threat in a minute.”

Wally hummed, perfectly happy to watch Dick work while he waited. It was a nice sight. His brow got this tiny little furrow that Wally had the urge to kiss. 

Dick gave one last tap with an air of finality and closed his laptop. “All done for now.”

He set it aside and twisted in the chair to fold himself into what should have been an uncomfortable position, but for Dick, was just as natural as breathing. 

Once he was settled, now facing Wally, his expression turned serious and he jumped right into his debriefing.

“Lex is planning to stage a hostage situation at tonight's communal dinner. To the world it will look like some above average goons held up a bunch of rich kids and asked for a ransom and then Lex himself stepped in and saved the day by taking out the goons and saving the poor, poor children. But beneath the surface, Lex is going to threaten to kill them all if Superman doesn’t stand down. Obviously big boy blue will do it because innocent lives and such, thus Lex looks like a hero and gets what he wants. I put this together through transmissions between someone in LexCorp- I assume someone very high up and privy to Lex’s shadier side- and the hired muscle that will be doing the holding up. Anyway, this is where we come in. You and I will obviously be at the dinner already, so the idea is we will handle the situation and take out the attempted kidnappers without compromising our identities before Lex even gets the chance to threaten Superman. I just finished up sending the details to Batman.”

Wally whistled lowly. “So no problem right?”

Dick’s mouth twitched. “It gets worse. Not only do we have to take them out without compromising our identities, you can’t use your speed. Lex will have meta blockers set up all over the place.” 

“Well here I was, hoping to take them all out in 5 seconds and be done,” Wally responded sarcastically.

Dick snorted. “Now you’re gonna have to see how the other half lives.”

“You mean at the speed of a sloth?”

“Whatever,” Dick responded, but he was smiling. “We should work out some sort of strategy for sneaking away to suit up without anyone noticing us and suspecting.”

Wally thought carefully. “We’ll need to take out the cameras for starters.”

Dick nodded in approval. Impressed, but not entirely surprised by Wally’s suggestion. “Smart thinking. I can do that right before dinner.”

Silence stretched between them as they both considered how to sneak away from so many people at once without being noticed. 

“Once Kid Flash and Robin show up, the confusion should mask our absence,” Wally mused.

“Actually, on second thought, maybe we should fight anonymously. No capes. It will make it less likely for Lex to figure out our identities,” Dick replied slowly.

Wally nodded. “Makes sense.” He paused, putting together the plan in his head as he moved to sit on the bed across from Dick. “So we just need to figure out how to slip away from a group of teenagers and armed mercenaries without being noticed so we can change into ninja clothes and come back to knock around the baddies- without me using my powers- before Lex uses them to blackmail Supes. Then slip away and come back in normal clothes before anyone becomes the wiser. Bada bing bada boom, we’re in the clear.”

“Did you just briefly become a New York gangster?” Wally laughed with him and after a moment Dick continued, “But yes. That’s it.”

Wally grunted once in understanding and fell silent. For all the joking and their impressive skills (mostly Dick’s) the task would be hard. And, well, Wally wasn’t totally sure about his combat skills without speed. He’d come to heavily rely on his meta abilities in battle. Of course, Black Canary had tried to train (coughbeatcough) that habit out of him, but he was still shaky. 

Despite that, he wasn’t too worried because Dick would be there. And Dick was amazing at hand-to-hand combat and Wally’s… um. His… What exactly was Dick to him now?

Wally’s thoughts derailed at the speed of, well, him. 

The silence stretched on. It was companionable, but not as easy as it usually was. There was a certain charge to it that was definitely new. But maybe not as foreign as Wally thought. After all, hadn’t there always been a certain… charge between them? 

“So… ” As always Wally’s mouth ran ahead of his thoughts and he continued after hearing Dick’s grunt of recognition. “How long?”

Dick hmmed in question, already back to his typing.

“How long have you… liked me.”

Wally regretted it. 

How do you reverse time?

Theoretically if he ran really fast he could go back in time and maybe tackle himself to stop him from talking? He felt like Uncle Barry had said something about doing that once.

But that wasn’t science! And the paradoxes! It just didn’t make sense, it couldn’t be true, so Wally was screwed.

In his internal tangent about science and time travel and his own idiocy, Wally didn’t even notice that Dick’s typing had stopped.

“Well… honestly it’s probably been going on for awhile, but I didn’t realize until more recently. Recently is relative though. I guess, if I had to pin down a time I’d say… 2 years? I probably realized on the Budapest mission when you went down. It-” Dick cut off sharply to take a rattling breath and set his laptop aside before continuing, “It scared me.”

“Oh,” Wally said, startled. _That long?_ “That’s a lot of wasted time.”

“What do you mean?” Dick asked, relieved that Wally didn’t seem too weirded out by his answer.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve had a crush on you for like 3 years.” Dick’s eyes snapped to Wally, completely shocked. “Think of all the time we could have had.”

A slow smile spread across Dick’s face. “Well then I guess we’ll just have to make up for it.”

Wally smiled too, but his was worried. “Dick, what are we going to do when this mission is over?”

Dick sighed. “I’m not sure Walls.” He _really_ hated talking about his feelings. But Wally was worth it. Wally would always be worth it. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

Wally didn’t answer immediately. When he did, it was slow and sincere and Dick could tell he’d put a lot of thought into this. “I want to be boyfriends.”

Dick knew he shouldn’t be surprised. He was.

“I don’t know how that would work exactly,” Wally continued, “but I’m willing to try. I want to try. I want to be with you.”

Those words did something to Dick. His face got hot and his stomach twisted with butterflies. His heart felt like he’d just finished a crazy battle. It felt like adrenaline and happiness and something that soared like he hadn’t in a long time.

“Oh.” He gulped. He wanted that too. 

Scooting their chairs closer so that their knees brushed, Dick spoke quietly, “That sounds amazing.”

Wally’s face lit up like he was looking at a five star buffet. “Good. So, uh, how would this work exactly?”

Dick snorted. But he was already thinking it through. “Honestly Wally? I don’t think I could keep my hands off you as Robin if we dated as Dick and Wally. Not when you’re in skin tight leather.” Dick flashed a smile to show that he was joking- but only partly.

Wally blushed and mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like, “It’s not leather it’s a cold cast polyester…” and something else, but Dick wasn’t totally sure.

“Besides, that way we don’t have to deal with press or anything. If, ah, that’s ok with you,” Dick said.

“Sounds good to me. But what should we _tell_ the team,” Wally responded almost exasperatedly.

Dick hummed. “Technically we don’t have to tell them anything. To emphasize that point, I suggest we don’t bother coordinating stories and just tell them whatever we feel like. It’ll be funny to watch them try to sort it out.”

Wally laughed. “Oh you are evil.”

“I do my best.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look at that. I have a plot. One covered with fluff and relationship talks, but still. Who would have thought?


	12. Babs and Arty have a chat.

“Babs, I appreciate you wanting to check up on me, I really do. I also appreciate talking to another non superpowered badass female superhero whenever I can, but I’m a little busy right now!”

Artemis dove away from the shockwave of her exploding arrow and shouted a warning to Superboy to watch his six. 

“Trust me on this one Arty. You’ll want to hear this,” Batgirl assured over the coms. If it were anyone else, Artemis might of asked how she got on this particular _closed_ channel, but it was Babs, so Artemis hadn’t even questioned it.

She sighed as much as one can sigh while roundhouse kicking a thug in the face. “I believe you Babs, but can it wait for like, five minute while I finish up here?”

“Sure, I’ll wait on the line.” As an after thought, she added, “You might want to get the big one sneaking up behind Kaldur.”

Artemis whirled around, firing off an arrow and sighing once again in exasperation. “ _Of course_ you hacked the cameras. I didn’t even know there were cameras here.”

“Please. There are cameras everywhere.”

Roughly four minutes of butt kicking latter, Artemis gathered with the rest of the team. She excused herself, gaining nothing more than an odd look from Kaldur, and stepped away to talk to Babs.

“Ok, what was worth interrupting me kicking ass?” 

“Hmmm. I could tell you, but that would take the fun out of it,” Babs said with a smile in her voice.

“What?!” Miss Martian looked over at her in alarm. She waved her off, lowering her voice. “You called me to tell me you can’t tell me anything? What is this? Gotham?”

“As it happens I _am_ in Gotham at the moment,” Batgirl said dryly. “But I really can’t just tell you. It’s better I… _show you_.”

Artemis snorted. “You’re hot, red, and I’m flattered, but if this is some sort of weird Bat version of a booty call, I’d like to know up front so I can wear something nice.”

“Another time and another place, Arty. I was thinking more giving you a mission and promising you’ll see something interesting before it’s over.” Babs replied. “Actually, you might even see something interesting before you go, depending if you want to spoil the surprise with research.”

Artemis thought it over. “Fine. I’m interested. So is this just for me or is this for the whole team?”

“Oh, you’ll all want to be there,” Bats assured.

Sighing dramatically, Artemis said with mock hurt, “I thought I was special to you.”

“Oh, always Arty. Are you ready for the details?”

“Hit me with it.”

“Ever heard of the LexCorp’s youths of tomorrow retreat for spoiled rich kids?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I just right flirting between Artemis and Batgirl? Shamelessly. 
> 
> Anyway, this is a short chapter and the next one is too so I’m going to post two today.


	13. Kiz and the very sweet interruption.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to our regularly scheduled fluff.

After a while, Wally convinced Dick to put down the laptop and cuddle with him on the couch. They turned the TV on and maybe kissed a bit to, but mostly they just held each other. It was wonderful and warm and new-

-until there was a knock on the door.

“Open up!” Kizzy yelled.

Dick pulled away from Wally reluctantly. “If we don’t get that, she’ll knock it down.”

The red head groaned, burying his head in Dick’s shoulder and placing a few kisses there. “But we’d have a few more minutes.”

Dick tugged at his hair half heartedly. “More like seconds. You can’t underestimate Kiz.”

With one final kiss, Wally rolled off of Dick and directly onto the floor next to the couch. He climbed ungracefully to his feet and padded over to the door, headless of his dishevelled appearance.

Kiz nearly fell through the door when Wally opened it. She gave a soft startled, “Oh.” and righted herself quickly, her eyes coming up to meet Wally’s and getting stuck somewhere halfway.

She took in his open shirt (they’d only been _mostly_ dressed when Wally had pulled Dick onto the couch) and the very obvious marks all over his chest ( _mostly_ from last night), then his puffed up lips( _mostly_ cuddling) and eyes still several shades too dark and blown wide, finally reaching his absolutely ravaged hair(turns out, Dick has a _thing_ for his hair). “Ohh,” she said smiling.

Wally hadn’t cared when he’d still been thinking about Dick’s lips, but now that Kizzy was looking at him with that sly smile and that twinkle in her eye, Wally found himself buttoning up his shirt.

Kiz glanced behind him and not seeing Dick, raised her voice slightly. “Can I borrow your boyfriend for a sec?”

Wally spluttered, but before he could protest, Dick called back, “I don’t know Kiz, I’m bad at sharing.”

“Puh-lease. He’s pretty for a ginger but he ain’t got nothin’ on Liv.” 

“We’ll have that argument later, yeah?”

Kiz laughed, grabbing Wally’s wrist and pulling him out into the hallway. Wally stumbled and almost hit the wall. She pulled the door shut behind them with an ominous click.

She put her back to it, effectively blocking Wally’s way out. He dragged his fingers through his hair in an attempt to straighten it out while he waited for Kiz to say whatever she was gonna say.

“So much for not having a physical relationship,” she drawled.

Wally blushed nearly the color of his hair. “I- uh-”

Kiz put up a hand to stall whatever useless excuse he’d been about to spew. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I’m happy for you. I’ve known Dick for a while and I’ve never seen him more comfortable with a person than he is with you.” Her expression was soft and for some inexplicable reason, it touched Wally to have her approval. He’d met her barely two days ago. Why did it matter so much to him?

“You guys are using protection though, right?”

And, she ruined it. Wally was back to spluttering, “Of course we- I am NOT getting _the talk_ from you!”

Kizzy broke down into giggles. “I’m sorry, you are just too cute.” Sobering slightly she added, “I love Dick like a brother, but I know he has more experience than you, so if anything goes wrong you tell me, alright?”

Wally could definitely appreciate _that_ sentiment, even if she was wrong. Mostly. He smiled softly. “Thank you Kizzy. I will, but it’s not gonna come to that,” he said sincerely.

“I don’t expect it too. Well, now that you know that,” Kizzy’s tone shifted abruptly, “If you hurt Dick, I _will_ hurt you. Probably with a shotgun. Maybe a pitch fork.”

Wally threw his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ kind of gesture. “I would _never_ hurt Dick. And if I ever did, you’d have to get in line for killing me.”

Wally hadn’t thought about the words until he said them, but when he did it hit him like a ton of bricks. _He was dating Batman’s adopted son._

Bruce was going to kill him.

He hadn’t even thought about that.

Kizzy missed his heart stopping horror, chuckling lightly. “Fair enough. I was going to hang out with you two until dinner, but I can see you’re busy, so I’ll just be going. See you later.”

“Wait, where’s Liv?” Wally asked.

Kiz waved vaguely. “She was coming a bit behind me. I’ll meet her on my way back to the room.”

Turning around, Kiz knocked once sharply on the door.

Like clockwork, Dick opened it for her. “All done?”

“This one’s a keeper Dickie. Hurt him and I’ll be pissed,” she said happily. Then she turned on her heel and walked away.

Dick whistled lowly looking after her. “Did she say anything too bad?” he asked returning his attention back to Wally. 

Wally pushed off the wall in a kind of daze. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

***

“Ready?”

“I’m literally the one sitting on the couch in full attire who’s been ready for twenty minutes. Do you need to ask?” Wally said, rising to his feet.

Dick rolled his eyes. “I had to make sure I had all the stuff. Hiding multiple weapons and two sets of clothes on your person under semi formal attire is not as easy as it sounds.” 

“I’m sure babe, but you wear it _so_ well.” Wally’s eyes dragged up and down Dick once appreciatively. Dick laughed, letting Wally pull him in for a kiss.

“We better get going,” he murmured against Wally’s lips.

Wally had to say he felt lighter than ever during the walk to the dining room. And the dinner itself was even better. Sure, not much changed because they had already been acting like boyfriends, but it still _felt_ different.

Frankly, the armed intruders came way too quickly for Wally’s taste.


	14. Wally’s screwed and Babs is laughing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mind link is in **bold**.

“Everybody on the ground!” The cry was loud, violent, and terribly cliche, but it was also effective. 

“That’s our cue,” Dick whispered, slipping his hand into Wally’s and tugging.

The armed mercenaries had seemed to come out of nowhere. They shot at the ceiling to prove their seriousness and the young aristocrats screamed, generally panicking. Wally and Dick used the confusion to slip silently into a closet that barely had enough room for them to move around.

“This is cozy,” Wally observed dryly.

Dick snorted, pulling two ninja outfits out of thin air. “Can you imagine how awkward this would have been yesterday.”

“Thanks, but I’d rather not.” They both started changing. “Hey, come to think of it, you never hacked into the cameras, did you? Should we be worried?” Wally asked, frowning in confusion as he hopped on one foot in an attempt to get his pants on.

“Funny story,” alarm bells started ringing in Wally’s head, “I got a message from Babs that told me not to. She said she could handle it better than I could and that she wanted access to a few of Lex’s files. Who am I to question Babs? So I slipped a computer chip in the bank as we walked past so she can hack it remotely.”

Grunting, Wally succeeded with his pants- no small feat when he couldn’t see a foot in front of his face- and started unbuttoning his shirt. Outside the crowd finally quieted and one of the thugs was giving instructions. “That’s weird. If I didn’t know better I’d say she was up to something.”

Dick hummed in agreement, fairing slightly better than Wally with his ninja pants already on. “I do know better and she is _definitely_ up to something.”

Just then a loud crash like breaking glass came from the other side of the door. Both boys froze, whipping around to look at the closed door in shock.

“Why’s she green?!”

“Is that boy wearing the Superman symbol?!”

“I was _not_ paid enough to face metas!!”

Wally and Dick slowly turned to make eye contact with each other. In perfect unison, they both hissed, “ _Shit_.”

The sounds of a scuffle could be heard outside, and then worse, Artemis, just outside the door, asking, “What exactly is so interesting about this particular place, Babs? And what does it have to do with Dick Grayson? He’s not even here!”

“Patience grasshopper,” Babs replied. “I’m sure he’s… around.”

Dick- the unflappable, ready for anything, completely prepared at all times, acrobat, _Bat trained_ \- Dick, froze on one foot, his ninja pants halfway off in his attempt to change back, and promptly toppled over.

Wally just froze, completely shocked. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen Dick lose his balance. He was stuck between wishing he had a camera, laughing, and panicking. 

Outside the door, the sounds of a fight turned to groaning.

“This mission was a success, but I fail to see how it is special,” Kaldur said.

Wally panicked, helping Dick to his feet before freezing. His brain, usually able to compute a hundred math equations a second and fast enough for him to catch a bullet, had stopped working. 

Dick didn’t seem to be faring much better.

“You know, I think we might have missed one. I thought I heard a voice coming from this closet.” It was definitely Batgirl’s voice, and she was definitely getting closer.

Dick reacted first, scooping his pants off the floor and pulling them on. He elbowed Wally hard, effectively kick starting Wally’s brain.

Dick had his pants and unbuttoned shirt on when Babs threw the door wide open. Wally was trying to buckle his belt, still shirtless.

Time seemed to stop, not just for Wally this time, but also for the entire team of heroes and all of the almost-hostages.

“What the hell Wally?!” Artemis yelled at the same time Kizzy yelled, “What the hell Dick?!”

Babs’ lips twitched before turning down into a decisive confused frown. Dick recognized the expression as Barbra having to fight tooth and nail not to laugh. If things kept going the way they were, it was a fight she’d lose eventually.

“Wait how do you know Wally?” Kizzy asked, standing from where she’d been shielding Liv on the floor to look at Artemis in confusion.

“I- uhm-” Artemis stuttered under the weight of possibly giving away Kid Flash’s identity. “I’m not the one who got caught having a quickie in a closet during a hostage situation!”

“Having a- We weren’t!” Wally couldn’t seem to form a full sentence under the weight of the entire room’s gaze as all eyes turned on him.

“Are you gonna put on a shirt?” Liv called, apparently the only person in the room not totally frozen in shock or simply not part of the conversation.

“Why bother? This is _much_ more interesting!” a voice called from somewhere in the crowd. Dick was pretty sure it was Mark.

Making a valiant effort to not bang his head against the wall, Dick started calmly buttoning up his shirt, schooling his expression into a straight face even though he was still freaking out. Wally did the same- minus the straight face. He didn’t have the training or the willpower to keep his embarrassment from his face.

“Everyone out.” Kaldur ordered in his usual calm but firm way. 

The aristocrats shifted, seemingly uncertain. 

“He said, EVERYONE OUT.” Superboy yelled.

Normally, someone on the team would have softened that with some quiet instructions, but no one was really functioning at peak capacity, so the aristocrats were left to scramble into the main hallway, pulling the door shut behind them.

Dick stepped gracefully out of the closet only to be nearly tackled by a flying Kizzy who hugged him fiercely before pulling away and slapping him. “You idiot! I can’t believe you disappeared to make out with your boyfriend while we were being _shot at!_ ”

“You weren’t being shot at and we weren’t making out!” Dick tried to say, putting up his hands but Kizzy talked right over him.

“There were guns and we found you in a closet half naked. Don’t lie to me Dick!” her face screwed up in anger, her whole body lined with tension. Nobody in the room could figure out if she was going to hit him again or hug him.

The answer was apparently hug because a moment later, Dick was being suffocated in golden brown frizzy hair. “You had me so worried,” she whispered.

And Dick wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He wasn’t used to people… worrying about him. At least not like this. Not to his face, admitting it openly with such a public display of affection. Dick wrapped his arms around the girl and buried his nose in her hair, breathing in her scent. 

Wally looked on in awe. Kizzy really was something else. Something truly amazing and probably just the dose of normalcy Dick needed to stay sane. He _got_ that now and he vowed to himself that somehow someway he would personally ensure their friendship continued.

All those thoughts derailed when Kizzy suddenly detached from Dick and jumped into Wally’s arms instead. “You too, you asshole.”

Then she was gone. Liv stepped forward to wrap her own arms around her girlfriend’s shoulders. “We should probably step out. Kiz needs a minute. And uh, I’m glad you guys are safe.”

She made eye contact with both boys and nodded politely once to the frozen heroes before guiding her teary eyed girlfriend towards a different exit than the one the others took.

Once the door had closed firmly Artemis spoke up, “Maybe _Mr. Wayne_ , should go too. We need to talk to Wally.” Her voice promised pain for the speedster.

Dick feigned a politely confused frown. “Why would you need to talk to Wally alone? We were both in the closet. I don’t want my boyfriend to bear the blame alone.”

Wally groaned out loud at the gay-couple-in-the-closet joke that he was somehow certain Dick had meant to make.

“Something to say, Wally?” Kaldur asked with a voice like steel.

“He made a- nevermind. The point is, we weren’t making out in that closet. This is all a misunderstanding and I had the situation under control,” Wally said.

Dick feigned another confused frown, but stayed quiet.

“Wally why didn’t you tell us you had a boyfriend?!” Miss Martian asked hysterically.

Wally visibly winced. 

“I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand how you guys know Wally.” Dick finally decided to speak up. Wally wasn’t sure if he wanted to strangle him or just run away.

The team of heroes shared a look and Dick figured they were probably talking through the mind link. He wondered amusedly how long it would take for them to realize they could just patch Wally in and bypass him completely. “We, uh, ran into him a few times?” Artemis tried.

Dick was actually kind of enjoying this confused act. “In Central City? I thought Flash was the only superhero there.” He smiled. “And Kid Flash, of course.”

Another nervous glance.

Wally was still incredibly uncomfortable, but even wanting to scream his head off and run into a wall repeatedly, he was still in awe of how Dick had turned the whole situation around so easily. He’d just been caught half naked in a closet and somehow, the team were the ones feeling awkward and stumbling to try and explain themselves.

It was _insanely_ hot.

**WALLACE RUDOLPH WEST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!**

Wally flinched. They finally patched him into the mind link. He couldn’t even tell who had yelled. He had a feeling it was a combination of people.

**It’s… complicated,** he allowed.

**Uncomplicate it,** Superboy replied, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. Wally silently thanked the stars that Superboy didn’t have heat vision. He rather liked his life.

Dick’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly as he realized what must be happening. “Hello? Is anyone going to answer me?” He looked at Wally in alarm before turning back to the heroes and looking them up and down reproachfully. He whispered to Wally loud enough he knew everyone could hear but quiet enough it would seem like he only wanted Wally to, “Are these guys trouble? I can talk to Bruce about doing something if they’re stalking you or anything.”

The young heroes tensed. **Who the hell is Bruce?** Superboy asked.

It was Miss Martian who responded, **Bruce Wayne is Dick’s father. He’s basically the Prince of Gotham. Gotham as in _Batman’s_ territory!**

**Batman will _kill_ us if Bruce Wayne starts hating on capes because of this,** Artemis added. **Plus, it’s rumored Bruce Wayne is doing the nasty with Batman and that’s why he’s so well funded. I don’t know if it’s true, but do you really want to be the idiot that makes Batman’s boyfriend breakup with him?**

Once again he was left marvelling at Dick’s ability to control the conversation. This was probably exactly the reaction he was going for when he said that. He’d known that the team would panic under the threat of upsetting Batman and he’d known how to do it subtly without attracting attention.

**I highly doubt Batman will kill us. Batman doesn’t kill,** Kaldur rationalized.

Artemis huffed. **Yeah, but he can screw us over in worse and way more inventive ways!**

**No one’s responded out loud,** Superboy pointed out.

**Wally! Cover for us!** Artemis ordered. 

Wally flinched again, but lied easily. “Nah Dick. It’s no problem. You remember how I told you about meeting Kid Flash that one time? They probably just know me from him.” 

Dick was actually pretty impressed with that lie. “Oh. Ok, that makes sense.”

**We’ll have to kill Wally later. For now, we play nice with the Gotham royalty and we get out of here, sound good?** Artemis asked.

**Kill me?** Wally repeated in alarm.

**We will also have to inform Robin,** Kaldur added gravely.

The irony physically hurt Wally. 

“We are sorry for holding you up, Mr. Wayne,” Kaldur said aloud. “The police should be here any minute to take care of everything. You should join the others. Both of you.” **And we will talk about _this_ , later,** he added on the mind link.

“Of course… I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your name?” Dick asked politely.

Kaldur hesitated a moment too long. “Aqualad.”

Dick smiled. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Aqualad.”

He offered his arm to Wally and they left the room together.

Once they were gone, Artemis turned to Batgirl who had somehow melted into the shadows, avoiding the entire conversation and instead merely watching in amusement. “What the hell Babs?!”

Babs smiled dangerously. “Thought you might be interested in that.”

“How long have you known Wally was dating someone? From Gotham no less!” Miss Martian asked.

“Since this morning.” Babs said evasively. 

Artemis looked her up and down. “But what do you get out of telling us?”

“One hell of a show.” Babs said with a smile. “But, show’s not over yet.” With that she stepped out another door no one had used yet, letting it close behind her.

Artemis stepped forward to look into the hallway, but Babs was already gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't exactly short, (also, this chapter!!!!) but I'm impatient. Mostly because I just posted the first chapter of my next fic _Because of you_ and I'm really excited about it. (It's TimKon and you should check it out. It's in the Batboy's and their boyfriends series(Which is only Bat _boys_ for right now. I will eventually expand)) ANYWAY, the point is I’m going to post two today.


	15. To lie or not to lie, that is the question

He could run to Antarctica and befriend the research scientists, or maybe he could go off world and hide in outer space. Whatever would keep him from having to go back to the Mountain and face the team.

Alas, they had satellites and they would find him.

So Wally went through the motions of giving a police statement and being photographed comforting his boyfriend. 

One surprisingly heartfelt and sincere goodbye to the girls and an hour later he was sitting in the back of a sleek car with Alfred driving and Dick beside him. 

“I’m glad to see you are okay, Master Dick,” Alfred said, looking at them in the mirror. “Both of you.”

Dick smiled back. “Thanks Alfred. Is Bruce at home? I was surprised he didn’t show at the pick up.”

Alfred sniffed, the only outwards sign he disapproved. “Something came up and Master Bruce had to go on an important mission with the league. He did not give a date of return, but I expect him back soon.”

Dick leaned back, closing his eyes. “That’s good. It will give us a chance to clear everything up before Bruce comes around.”

Frowning, Wally said, “Speaking of Bruce, I thought he said he was going to keep the team busy so they didn’t find out about our mission.”

Dick sighed. “It sounded like Babs had something to do with that. I can’t figure out why she did it though, it could potentially endanger my identity and Bruce’s- maybe even hers. We’re missing something.”

Wally hummed in agreement, lost in a mix of dread and thought.

The car lapsed into silence until Dick’s communicator rang high and clear from the front seat.

“Oh yes, I brought your communicator Master Dick. I thought you might want it.” Alfred said, handing the small device back to Dick.

Thanking Alfred, Dick picked up. “Robin here.”

“Robin! We’ve been trying to get ahold of you for an hour,” M’gann’s voice came through the communicator.

“I was on a mission, but that doesn’t matter now. What do you need?”

“It’s about Kid Flash. We need you at the Mountain, ASAP!” Artemis answered.

Dick fought to keep his voice steady, feigning concern. “Is he alright?”

“He’s not going to be when I get ahold of him,” Artemis growled.

Dick snickered, covering the communicator so that they couldn’t hear him. When he’d gotten himself back under control, he said, “Alright. ETA 10 minutes.” and hung up.

“That’s it. They’re never going to find my body. Why are they all so mad anyway? Honestly I was expecting Artemis at least to be more amused!” Wally cried in anguish.

Dick shifted uncomfortably, turning to look out the window. He had an idea of why the team might be less than happy about Wally suddenly being in a relationship, and he didn’t think he wanted to share.

He changed the subject. “Whatever the case, this is going to put some serious wrenches in our plan to come out to the team as a couple.”

“Congratulations Master Dick,” Alfred said dryly from the driver's seat, “May I say, it’s about time.”

Dick blushed. “A-Alfred! Please don’t tell anyone. Especially Bruce.”

Alfred smiled. “My lips, are sealed.”

As soon as they got to the manor, Dick disappeared into his room and came back out wearing black skinny jeans, a green sweatshirt, and a black jacket with his usual sunglasses already in place. “I’ll go in first, talk to the team, get ‘caught up’ then you can come through and we’ll try to make this all blow over, ok?”

Wally nodded distractedly. 

“Then I’m off.” Dick started towards the Batcave’s zeta tube. 

“Wait!” Wally grabbed Dick’s wrist and pulled him in for a lingering kiss. “See you soon,” he murmured.

“Yeah.” Dick’s voice cracked.

He stepped through the zeta tube and emerged in the Mountain.

“RECOGNIZED: ROBIN B01,” the zeta tube announced.

“Thank god you’re here Robin! You won’t believe what we just found out!” M’gann came rushing towards him. “Wally has a boyfriend!”

Dick had to make a decision. As a Bat and Wally’s best friend, he could probably pull off having already known. Or he could play it like it was new to him too. He knew the team would be annoyed at him for knowing and not telling them, but once again, he was a Bat. He was expected to keep secrets.

That made something in Dick’s stomach writhe painfully, but it would make this whole situation easier to handle, and wasn’t that worth the comparison to Batman?

“You mean Dick?” he said before he could think about it further.

M’gann stalled, turning back toward him slowly from where she’d been walking towards the living room. “You knew?”

Robin shrugged nonchalantly. “Wasn’t too hard to figure out. I do keep up on the news, particularly the news surrounding Gothamites.” He tucked his hands in his pockets and strolled over to the couch.

“What’s on?” he asked leaning over the back of it to reach for the remote. He turned the TV on and started flipping through channels. Superboy looked up at him from the couch with his usual resting bitch face, seemingly the least affected by the events.

“Woah woah woah, back it up,” Artemis said indignantly. “Tell us about Wally’s apparent boy toy, and start at the beginning.” 

Robin sighed like this conversation was boring and old news. “Not much to say. Walls has a boyfriend. It’s not exactly much of a surprise. Dick is…” He sighed wearily. The words that came to mind were ‘unworthy’, a ‘filthy liar’, and ‘probably going to end up pushing everyone away and hurting them’, but he couldn’t say any of that.

He’d hesitated too long. “Well?” Artemis all but screeched.

“Look, it’s fine!” Robin defended, abandoning his earlier sentence. “Dick is fine, Wally is fine, _they_ are _fine._ ” _I think._

“How can you be ok with this?” M’gann asked softly, finally coming over to sit on the couch next to Superboy. Kaldur remained still as a statue, watching the proceedings with careful eyes, but not saying a word.

Robin shook himself, trying to summon an air of indifference. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

All four of the team members exchanged glances, even Superboy and Kaldur. “We see the way you look at him,” Kaldur said softly.

Robin froze, the TV stopping on some crime show that was horribly inaccurate and overdramatic. 

M’gann continued for him, “We’re just worried about you, that’s all.”

“RECOGNIZED: KID FLASH B03”

“Before you all kill me, I’d like you to know, I had the situation under control,” Wally announced, striding into the cave.

“Like hell you did!” Artemis growled, rising to her feet. “We haven’t even told you the best part Robin! Wally here was making out with Dick in a closet! During a hostage situation!”

Robin couldn’t help himself, he snorted.

“I expected you to be more concerned, Robin.” Kaldur said, his voice sharper than a batarang. “A teammate could have gotten innocents hurt through his lack of professionalism.”

“That’s not fair! No one got hurt and no one was going to get hurt!”

Artemis snorted. “Puh-lease. If we hadn’t shown up, they would have all been toast. You _should_ be grovelling at Batgirl’s feet right now for sending us there!”

“Babs sent you?” Robin asked, straightening up and turning to look directly at Babs where she was hiding in the shadows for the best vantage to observe the scene. If she was surprised he hadn’t even had to look for her, she didn’t show it. “And why would Babs do that?”

Babs smirked. 

“The better question is why didn’t Wally tell us about his secret boyfriend? I know you’re a joker and a flirt, Wally, but I never expected you to fall so low as to endanger innocents like that!” M’gann scolded.

Wally was starting to actually get angry. “If you would just let me explain-”

“I think we saw everything we needed to.” Artemis’ eyes narrowed dangerously.

“That settles it then. Starting now Kid Flash is officially off duty until further notice. We’ll have to inform Batman of his transgressions when he returns for further action,” Kaldur ordered.

Robin was still staring at Babs. Her smug smirk was gone and now she looked almost panicked. Whatever she had intended, this wasn’t it.

“This isn’t fair! You’re not letting me explain! Help me out here Rob,” Wally sounded anguished.

Robin pulled away from his staring contest with Babs and said, “He’s right. No one was in danger.”

Stunned silence stretched through the room. “ … What?”

Robin- no Dick, made a decision. “No one was in danger because he wasn’t making out with Dick Grayson because they were changing into more appropriate clothes to beat the shit out of those kidnappers.” He let the silence stretch for a moment. “Or should I say we?”

Dick reached up and slowly removed his glasses, folding them carefully and setting them on the table. He looked around at everybody, taking in their reactions carefully and letting each one see his face. Babs had regained her careful and unreadable mask, but Dick was pretty sure this was about what she had expected to happen. 

Wally’s mouth was open in shock. He’d been waiting for Dick to pull some amazing and entirely convincing lie out of his ass or something, not to just give away his secret identity like that.

Artemis looked slightly more accepting. He could see the pieces of the puzzle clicking into place behind her eyes, and the subsequent dawning realization as she thought back to all her interactions with Dick Grayson, earlier and, however briefly, in school.

M’gann looked simply dumbfounded. Aqualad had straightened and was studying Dick calculatingly. He was probably the only person in the room who was currently thinking straight. Dick could see him going through all the implications of Dick’s identity and the entire team knowing it.

Superboy’s eyebrows raised once as if to say, _So that’s how you want to play this?_ Before he leaned back into the couch with his normal expression.

Dick frowned at him. “You already knew.” It wasn’t a question.

Superboy shrugged. “Superhearing. I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“Is Batman going to kill all of us? Me in particular for causing you to reveal your identity?” Wally asked frantically.

Dick scoffed. “No. And you didn’t cause me to say that, I’ve been thinking about telling the team for awhile. I trust all of you completely and I think it’s about time. Besides, there isn’t really another good way to clear up this mess.” He shot Babs one sharp, angry look. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“I’m sorry Dick, but we both knew this was going to happen eventually. And after what I heard last night, I knew it was going to happen sooner rather than later. I was just looking to give you an opening.” In response to Dick’s horrified expression, Babs shrugged, continuing, “I was just going over the audio to cover it up and I happened to hear everything and I’m still kinda traumatized so I thought I would get some harmless pay back, while helping you reveal your identity.”

Dick blushed. Hard. “You- you heard e-everything?”

“ _Fuck,_ ” Wally whispered quietly, but with feeling.

Artemis glanced slyly between the three of them. “What _exactly_ did she hear?”

Both boys blushed furiously, looking anywhere but at each other or the team. Babs wisely stayed silent.

“Wait so does this mean Wally doesn’t have a secret boyfriend?” M’gann asked, still reeling.

“Wellll… ” Dick hedged, regaining his composure. “That’s not entirely true either.”

He walked over to his boyfriend and kissed him soundly. 

When he pulled away a smile was playing around Wally’s lips. “Has anyone ever told you you’re very dramatic?”

“It’s come up once or twice.”

“Really? Never would have guessed.”

“Honestly I was surprised you didn’t when I pulled off the glasses. Shock gets the best of us all I guess.”

Dick slipped his arm around Wally and leaned into him in a very purposeful show of affection. Wally put his own arm around Dick’s shoulders and they stood together, ready to weather whatever happened next.

Babs looked amused. Everyone else’s jaw was on the floor, or their own equivalent of that anyway. A moment of very tense silence passed until M’gann flew several feet straight up and _squealed._ “That is _so_ cute!”

Wally blinked. “I’m glad you approve,” he said dryly.

“Wait, how long has this been going on?” Artemis yelled.

“Since yesterday?” Dick answered faintly.

M’gann gushed,“That’s so amazing! Who admitted it first? Was it really romantic? Have you told anyone yet? Does that mean there’s an audio recording of your love confession somewhere?”

She kept going but Dick didn’t hear. He was too busy looking at Babs in alarm. 

She smiled wickedly. “I do happen to have one.” She sighed. “But after what just happened, I figure I owe it to you to delete that. Or I could save it and play it at your wedding,” she offered.

“Delete it,” Dick ordered.

She sighed dramatically. “If I must.”

“So you guys were on a mission the whole time?” Artemis asked.

“Yup,” Wally confirmed. He frowned. “Actually, I have a question myself. Why were you guys so mad I had a boyfriend?”

The team looked uncomfortable, M’gann even came down to sit on the couch again.

“Mostly we were mad you put civilians at risk,” Artemis said carefully.

After another moment of silence, Wally prompted, “And?”

Kaldur cleared his throat. “I believe the human term is ‘we shipped it’. You and Robin, that is to say. We feared your relationship status may have hurt him or fractured the team.”

Wally blinked. “Oh.”

“Apparently you were better at hiding it than I was,” Dick mumbled burying his face in Wally’s neck so he didn’t have to face everyone any more.

An uncomfortable silence fell on the group, no one quite sure how to fill it.

“If either of you hurts the other, we will find you, and we will crush you.” Superboy said simply. Picking up the remote to continue flipping channels.

“Connor!” M’gann exclaimed.

“No, no, he’s right,” Artemis put in. Turning to Dick and Wally she continued, “Consider that your shovel talk from all of us.”

Dick groaned burrowing deeper into Wally’s neck.

“RECOGNIZED: BATMAN A02 FLASH A04”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so proud of this cliffhanger. Maybe I just posted this today to make you all suffer. Who knows. I might just be evil.


	16. Meet the parents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger (No I'm not) but this is it people. This is the last chapter. 
> 
> Well, then the epilogue, but... you'll see what I mean.
> 
> I'm just going to go ahead and post the epilogue today too.

“We’re here to pick two young heroes up from… vacation… ” Flash trailed off, stopping dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

Dick froze. If Flash was there then that meant-

“Robin. Report.”

Slowly, painfully, Dick pulled away from Wally and turned around. 

Standing up straight, Dick switched automatically into soldier mode. “The mission was a success. The hired kidnappers were neutralized and sent to jail before they could take the aristocrats captive and everyone was sent home. In addition, I managed to plant a bug from which Batgirl can hack several of LexCorp’s files. However, the team showed up and it was them that took out the kidnappers. We were, uh, held up.”

Batman stared at Dick, his face expressionless and his eyes slightly widened. Basically the equivalent of a full blown dramatic gasp and jaw drop. After several minutes of very _tense_ silence, where in everybody wished they could run and hide, Batman said, “Well done. I expect a mission report by end of day.”

Dick let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding. “Yes, sir.”

“Also, I expect to know what ‘held you up’ and why the team was there at all.”

Dick finally peeled his attention away from Batman to glare daggers at Babs. “It’s quite the funny story, actually.”

Batgirl seemed to shrink even further into the shadows, but Batman hardly even noticed. Deflating slightly, he said, “Really Dick? The speedster?”

Someone snorted from behind them. Now that he’d heard it in Batman’s voice, Dick realized how pained his expression was.

Flash turned to Batman in offense. “Hey! I’m a speedster!”

Batman quirked an eyebrow at him. “And I would never consider me or my progeny dating you to be an acceptable circumstance. Your point is invalid.”

Choking, Flash sputtered, “D-did you just make a joke?!”

Dick broke out in laughter. Frowning, Batman responded, “No. I made a point.”

“We’re just gonna go,” Artemis said, slipping out of the living room with the rest of the team in tow. Only the Bats, minus Babs, and the speedsters remained.

Flash was still trying to defend himself. “Obviously I wouldn’t date a Bat because he and Babs are teenagers and you’re… ” Batman stared directly into Flash’s soul. “ _… you._ ” He cleared his throat. “But come on! Dick and Walls have been pining after each other forever!”

Batman made a faint choking noise. So did Dick and Wally.

“And besides,” Flash grinned. “We’re gonna be inlaws!” 

Batman repeated the choking noise. 

“So you’re ah,” Wally cleared his throat, collecting himself first. “Ok with this, Uncle Barry?”

Flash zoomed over so he was suddenly standing behind the boys, an arm slung over each of their shoulders. “Are you kidding me? This is great! I can throw it in Bruce’s face for years that I figured out you two liked each other before _the world’s greatest detective_ did. Not to mention the family reunions! Can you imagine Brucie bringing enough Bat-hotdogs to feed multiple speedsters? Scratch that, just imagine Bruce trying to interact with multiple speedsters in an informal setting.”

He lowered his voice and let go of Dick so he was facing Wally now. “Seriously Walls. I’m proud of you and I support you guys.” Even lower, he whispered, “If Bruce does make a big deal out of this, you can hide out with me and Iris- both of you. He’d find you, obviously, but he wouldn’t be able to take Dick away without making a scene.”

Wally could feel tears gathering in his eyes. It wasn’t that he’d ever expected Barry to reject him or anything, but he’d never been able to shake the dark thoughts that maybe Barry and everyone else loved an idea of him and learning he was bi would affect that. Maybe they didn’t love _him._ To hear Barry say he was proud of him felt like a weight he’d been carrying around for years had been lifted.

Barry pulled him in for a hug, and Wally held on like his life depended on it. Trying to convey his gratitude. “Thank you,” he choked out, blinking the tears away.

Dick watched the touching moment, feeling his own throat growing uncomfortably tight.

Batman hadn’t moved an inch. He looked desperately between the touching moment between speedsters and the plain longing on his son’s face. His heart twisted in a way it hadn’t in a long time, and not for the first time he wished he were better at expressing his emotions. Still, he had to try.

“Dick.” 

The boy in question jumped. “Yes?” he asked reflexively.

Bruce cleared his throat. “You should… ask Wally if he wants to come over for dinner some time. I’m sure Alfred would love the company.”

A slow smile spread across Dick’s face. “Like a meet the parents situation?”

Bruce shifted uncomfortably. “I already know most things about Wally, but yes. Like that.”

Positively beaming, Dick took an instinctive step forward before stopping himself. Bruce met him halfway, taking the boy into his arms and hugging him. _Man,_ Bruce reminded himself. Dick was practically an adult and as much as he was loathe to admit it, Bruce would have to start treating him as such eventually.

Unfortunately, Dick was still his son and Bruce was still a father. “Are you two being safe? I can have a slideshow presentation ready in 3 hours to explain-”

“Ew! Bruce, stop.” Dick pulled away. “We haven’t- that’s not the point. I’m just gonna say yes and I already know it all.”

“I’ll have Alfred buy some condoms just to be safe,” Bruce said gravely.

Dick groaned, but couldn’t suppress a small smile.

“We do still need to talk about the secret identities thing and exactly how you were held up, but that can wait.” Bruce said, “For now, let’s go home.”

Calling a farewell to Wally, Dick followed his adoptive father through the zeta tube, feeling lighter than he had in forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this chapter was incredibly short but this was a good stopping point.
> 
> So. The end? Wow. It’s been a wild ride. I can’t believe it’s over.
> 
> When I started writing this in January, it was a stupid one shot word vomit because I had an idea and nothing better to do. It wasn’t ever supposed to see the light of someone else’s screen and I definitely didn’t expect to finish it. But then I thought, “Why the hell not?” and I posted the first 5 chapters on Wattpad. Then I got positive feedback and fell into another lull with school work and my other writing projects so I more or less said, “Why the hell not?” again and got my inspiration back. Then I edited, redid, and posted it on here too so it was no longer trash, and this was the result.
> 
> I guess what I’m trying to say is, this was fun and I never thought it’d go this far but I’m glad it did. So thanks for reading.


	17. Rogues, meet Rogues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue was tricky for me because I suck at endings. In the end (ha I made a pun), my choice was heavily influenced by the fact that I watch the entire Arrowverse (Obviously only DC’s Legends and the Flash are relevant here but, I do) and Gotham. So yeah. The epilogue lowkey isn’t Young Justice in the slightest and everyone is probably painfully OOC, but I think it’s funny at least.

“Your Birdie is dating our Kid.”

Captain Cold slammed the newspaper down on the bar of the Iceberg lounge, backed by half of the rogues gallery. The action itself was somewhat violent, but, as always, the man was cool as ice. Seeing he had the attention of the room, most importantly Batman’s rogues, Snart, threw his hood back and sat on the bar stool.

Signaling Penguin calmly, he ordered, “Your coldest from the top shelf.” After a beat, he added, “ _Please._ ”

Catwoman stood gracefully from the booth she’d been sharing with Harley and her girlfriend Ivy to walk across the room and slide onto a stool next to Snart. Smiling slyly, she said, “Heard about that. It’s real awkward with Daddy Bats, but I hear he’s working on it.”

Pied Piper snorted. “He better be.”

“ _Freeze!_ ” Snart stiffened, mentally running through the settings on his cold gun needed to warn someone, maybe through the loss of a few fingers, about getting his name wrong. But then Ivy continued, “ _I told you_ Robin was gay. Did you believe me? No! You blamed that failed heist on me and said _my_ plants failed.” She sneered at Mr. Freeze. “You owe me a drink.”

“I’ll add it to your tab,” Penguin said dryly, addressing the wide eyed man as he waddled over to Ivy to top off her empty glass.

“Not to suggest we don’t _love_ you Central city folks,” Catwoman drawled, effectively taking back the spotlight. Not that it ever really left her. “But it’s an awful dangerous trip to Gotham, and it draws a lot of attention, so I’m forced to ask, why are you here?” 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Mick growled, with his usual wide eyed stare, a top shelf whisky somehow already in his hand. “To tell you not to screw our speedster.”

Selina purred, “Protective, are you?”

“Like you’re not.” Cold took a long sip of the drink Penguin had handed to him. Ice cold, as was expected. “Word is you’re awful close with Batsy and by extension probably care an awful lot for that kid.”

Selina stared at him through narrowed eyes. She really did look like a cat stalking her prey. “Maybe.”

Harley, who had been dozing on her girlfriend before the Rogues came in and was still waking up, finally spoke. “So, you’re here to declare war on our baby cape if he hurts your baby cape?”

“Pretty much,” Mirror Master confirmed.

Batman’s rogues exchanged guarded looks. Selina was the one who responded, projecting her voice to the whole room but keeping her eyes glued to Snart. “Fair. Consider it mutual.”

After searching her eyes carefully for any sign of doubt, Snart nodded, already running through plans to defend Central City from the wrath of Gotham in case the kid screwed up. “That’s something I can drink to.”

Penguin quickly ensured everyone had a drink, deceptively fast despite his waddle. All the Rogues raised their glasses.

“May they be so busy sucking face they forget to check their security,” Cold toasted.

“May they have better luck in bed than they did covering up their relationship,” Selina added.

They drank.

“Wait! What ‘bout Mista J?” Harley asked setting down her glass loudly in alarm. 

Snart had always preferred the cold, but the chill that fell over the room was anything but comfortable. Selina hissed, Ivy tightened the arm around her girlfriend protectively, Penguin froze in the act of cleaning a glass, Riddler seemed to actually shrink.

Harley leaned into her girlfriend’s touch, her eyes darting around the room as she considered the various Rogues. “He’s gonna try ta use the kid to drive Rob insane. It’s his thing.”

“We won’t let that happen,” Ivy said darkly.

Snart glanced at _his_ rogues. “We won’t either. If the Joker fucks with our kid, he’s going down.”

“Believe me, there are no complaints here,” Selina said, “In fact, if you see him anywhere in Central, call us up. I’ll sharpen my claws and be there to help in 30 minutes tops.”

Snart raised an eyebrow at her. Reason told him that was impossible for a non speedster, but somehow, he didn’t doubt her.

“Where’s the clown now?” Mick asked.

“Arkham,” Penguin answered shortly. “He probably doesn’t know yet, but he will soon.”

Snart looked around the room gravely. “And we’ll be ready.”

A moment of steely solidarity passed in silence before Selina broke it. “So how’d you find out about the happy couple?”

Snart waved a hand towards the newspaper he’d slammed down when he’d first walked in that had gone completely ignored. “Mostly that.”

The front cover had a large, albeit slightly grainy, photo of Robin dipping Kid Flash, their lips locked in what was undoubtedly a passionate kiss. The headline read, “BOY WONDER STEALS KID FLASH’S HEART?”

Selina snorted. “I see. Mind if I keep this? Batsy probably already knows, but it’s so fun to tease.”

Shrugging, Snart replied nonchalantly, “Go ahead, I already got copies.”

It evolved from there into storytime centering around the heroes of the hour. Mostly the various things they’d done that hinted at their relationship and sexual orientation over the years. 

Hours later Selina stood up to give one last toast before the Central City Rogues left to find sleeping arrangements until they were sober enough to get home.

“May we be in heaven before the devil notices we’re dead, and if we do end up in hell, may we steal a pitchfork on our way out.”

They drank one last time and Snart stood up to lead his Rogues away, only slightly tipsy on his feet.

Selina ran her hands over his jacket in the doorway as she said goodbye, but even drunk, he recognized the movements of a skilled thief.

“Wallet,” he said holding out his hand.

She beamed, handing it over. “Aw, you’re no fun.”

He wouldn’t notice the piece of paper she’d slipped into it until much later. He’d be surprised to find it had a phone number written on it. He wasn’t totally sure what to make of that except that Selina had been very serious about them teaming up if it became necessary.

The Bird and the Kid had more riding on their relationship than they knew. More protection as well.

They were going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS MY FIRST EVER FANFIC  
> Just had to get that out there.


End file.
